A Waltz Across Vienna: The Forgotten Counterpart to Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations

In 1823, Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, took the musical world by storm. But few remember that this towering work was only half the story.

The original project, launched by composer-turned-publisher Anton Diabelli, was conceived as a patriotic anthology: fifty-one composers, each contributing a variation on the same simple waltz. The result: a musical mosaic of Vienna’s vibrant cultural scene in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

It is hard to overstate the richness of this collection. Ranging from Schubert, Liszt and Hummel to aristocratic amateurs and obscure Kapellmeisters, the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein brings together a dazzling variety of musical voices. These variations are not just footnotes to Beethoven’s achievement: they are a vivid snapshot of musical life in what was then the undisputed capital of Western music.

This edition restores the forgotten half of the Diabelli story. These pieces reflect the full spectrum of Viennese musical life: pedagogues and prodigies, theorists and virtuosi, noble patrons and theatre composers – all writing within a shared tradition, yet each leaving a distinct musical fingerprint.

Now available in a scholarly Urtext edition, this anthology offers a unique window into the musical imagination of an entire generation. It’s playful, eccentric, brilliant, sometimes modest, but always revealing.

Variations on a Theme by Diabelli will be available from 1 August 2025.