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Anton Diabelli, a Viennese publisher and composer of popular music for amateurs, published Beethoven's Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz for Pianoforte in 1823. A year later he republished the set as Part I of a two-volume collection, Part II of which comprised 50 variations on the same “Given Theme”, each written by a different “prominent composer”. Among those who contributed were Hummel, Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles, Schubert, Archduke Rudolf and the 11-year-old Liszt. The “Given Theme” was a waltz, “Ein Deutsche” written by Diabelli himself. Even judged by the highest standards of Beethoven’s output the Diabelli holds a very special place among his works. It is an opus magnum that summarizes not only Beethoven’s own experiments as a composer but those of the whole German musical tradition to which he considered himself a rightful heir.
