November, 2007

The American Record Guide published a review of our SACD in the November/December
edition. Read what Mr. Alan Becker said:

'This new label from Brazil adds a special twist to the already overflowing list of Beethoven
Diabelli Variations. Tracks 35-51 contain the composer's sketches for the massive work, and
they are fascinating as a means of looking into the master's creative process. In addition to
this, we are given a 173-page booklet prepared by the pianist with analysis, musical examples,
and facsimiles of a few pages from the manuscript – in two languages, English and Brazilian
Portuguese. The farcical picture of Beethoven on the cover may make some suspicious of the
seriousness of the project. Fear not. The only real negatives to be found are the cost and the
tight pocket, which requires delicate handling not to damage the disc.

I see that Amazon.com offers it for $35, so scholarship doesn't come cheap. Alcantara also
uses historical tuning, so few stones have been left unturned. At this point the reader might
ask if it is all worth it? Decidedly yes, would have to be my reply. If you like splash and dash in
your Diabelli, this would not be the performance for you. Alcantara lets the music speak for
itself and never calls attention to his technical accomplishments.

From the opening statement of the theme to the concluding variations, the pianist takes
special care to avoid getting in the way of the music. With the special tuning, performance on
a fortepiano might have been expected. As the notes point out, Alcantara has a clear
preference for the sound of a modern instrument. Heard on SACD, this preference is amply
justified, though the reproduction on a standard CD player does nicely enough.

High points are Variation 20 for the intense concentration given the Andante and the
concluding Largo and Fugue. The Largo, the longest variation, has plenty of opportunity to
advance its cause with both beauty and heartbreak. With the concluding Tempo di Minuetto
Moderato we have come full circle as the Diabelli Variations closes much as it began, with a
light touch. If this does not displace Serkin, Demidenko, Bishop-Kovacevich, and others in my
affection, it certainly joins them.

The sketches consume less than nine minutes but are essential to our understanding of the
composer's thought process. An introduction, for example, was originally conceived to be
played before the statement of the theme. Beethoven decided to abandon it, but these first
ideas are included here. Alcantara also plays the first few notes of the theme so we can hear
how it fits in. This, along with pages of notes about each sketch are analyzed by the pianist.
Also fascinating is a table for each of the variations where Czerny, Brendel, and others have
given a name for each variation. This includes Alcantara as well, who certainly deserves the
right to contribute his thoughts.'
August, 2007

One of the most important magazines in Brazil, Veja, recommended our disc. Read what they
said:

'Mr. Alcantara: an intriguing Beethoven

Beethoven - Diabelli Variations, Marco Alcantara (Sui Generis) – In 1819, the composer
Anton Diabelli sent to various colleagues a small theme, asking for one variation. Beethoven
wrote his one, but he got curious about the possibilities of that work. At the end, the
composer had created his longest piece for the piano, composed of 33 variations, which
encompasses from parody to his usual force and energy. A little hard to grasp at first audition,
but very rich regarding Beethoven’s reinventions to the careful ears, Mr. Alcantara’s recording
uses a special tuning for the piano, which gives us a colourful sound. It also includes sketches
never recorded before.'

The website Digestivo Cultural is famous in Brazil for its sharp reviews. Julio Daio Borges wrote:

'Is there any way to fight against the omnipresence of music on the Internet? Maybe not.
One idea – but not a solution – is maybe to experiment new formats and distribute new
information, more sofitiscated than mp3 and more contextualized than a mere Google’s
search. That is what Sui Generis did by launching Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, played by the
Brazilian pianist Marco Alcantara, in the new Super Audio format (SACD), with one of the
biggest (and best) booklets in the history of recording. Mr. Alcantara did a deep research, and,
besides the theme and 33 variations, recorded 17 sketches from the Bonn’s master. Not
pleased yet, he used a historical tuning as well. Mr. Alcantara wrote himself the entire booklet,
with more than 150 pages, which covers the inexhaustible Diabelli Variations, from its
conception to an extensive bibliography, not forgetting the sketches and the tuning. At a
country where people still believe in art as "inspiration" – and psychic artists – it is amazing to
find a musician so conscious of his work, so worried about giving a true contribution to the
work, and, at the same time, with such a sensitive and talented playing. Outside Brazil – since
the disc is available here just now, in the second semester – Mr. Alcantara and his version of
Beethoven’s Diabelli Varitions were unanimously welcome. It could not be different. Marco
followed the steps of other masters, like Alfred Brendel, and put another piece in the Diabelli’s
puzzle, while deeply investigating this huge sea called Beethoven. In a funny auto-interview,
Mr. Alcantara suggests he would like to work with different tunings...That he accomplishes this
and other projects, is the sincere wish from the ones who listen to him.'

Journalist Nahima Maciel wrote a longer article for the newspaper Correio Braziliense:

'Beethoven with a historical mood

Yes, Beethoven was really in a good mood during those days in 1819. It was so unusual, that
it motivated the violinist and friend Anton Schindler to record in his diary those few smiles
from the composer known as grumpy. The reason was the variations on a theme of another
composer, Anton Diabelli, in which Beethoven was working on. A few months later Schindler
would have gotten an impolite "Get out of here". Beethoven had finished the Variations and
had started his Ninth Symphony. This story is told by pianist Marco Alcantara to explain why
Beethoven has such an ironic smile at the cover of his CD Beethoven Diabelli Variations. The
disc took three years to be prepared and it has just been launched by Sui Generis. There is a
collection of musical reasons, which makes this interpretation important for the variations, but
it is in the small details that Mr. Alcantara’s work begins.

The cover is a smiling version of Ferdinand Waldmüller’s famous painting of Beethoven. The
booklet has a huge text, written in Portuguese and English with the detailed history of the
Diabelli Variations. The text was written by Mr. Alcantara to contextualize the piece’s
composition. The 176 pages tell you how Beethoven apparently denied Diabelli’s invitation to
write only one variation to, at the end, finish with his 33. It took Beethoven four years to
compose the piece. During this period he composed 3 Piano Sonatas and finished the Missa
Solemnis. The Diabelli Variations are difficult to fit inside our traditional idea of Beethoven’s
music. "It’s a unique work", warns Alcantara. "It has completly different compositional styles
inside. The Variations belong to a period when Beethoven was going to a new direction. There
are both archaizing and modernizing styles in it and this piece has a bigger influence today
than it had during Beethoven’s time."

Beethoven founded Romanticism in Classical Music through his symphonic works with epíc
and heroic contours. He did it during his second period, which had more influence on the
History of Music. The third and last period, however, had little impact on the next generation.
In this last period, Beethoven was more focused in more personal ways of expression, with
emphasis in genres like fugue and variations. The Diabelli Variations belong to this period.

Serenity

A good way to understand the piece’s form is to listen carefully to its first part, from the
theme until variation 10, in which there is a tension growing punctured by relatively calm
parts. After variation 10 the sonority changes. There is a serenity within these slower
variations. Besides all the beauty and its importance, Mr. Alcantara has other reasons to justify
his recording.

The Diabelli Variations have been recorded by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maurizio Pollini, Daniel
Barenboim, Sviatoslav Richter and a dozen more important pianists during the last 40 years.
What could possibly bring another recording of this piece? "It is probably the first recording
using historical tuning in Brazil", says Alcantara. Instead of a piano tuned in equal
temperament, as we are used to having today, Alcantara prefered a tuning used during
Beethoven’s time. The American Scott Kuhn made this tuning, where the white keys are more
in tune than the black ones. This makes more far away keys more “out of tune”, just like in
Beethoven’s piano.

Alcantara has also included some of Beethoven’s sketches for the work. "Actually I started
studying these sketches as an introduction to my concert with the Diabelli", explains. These
sketches that would become later the Diabelli Variations help us follow Beethoven’s thoughts,
from the very ordinary musical ideas to the outstanding final version.'

For the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Irineu Franco Perpetuo wrote:

'In the high-fidelity format SACD, which also plays in regular CD players, pianist Marco
Alcantara plays – in a Hamburg Steinway – the 33 Variations Beethoven wrote in 1823, on a
waltz by the Viennese editor Anton Diabelli. The work has at the same time a concise and
variety quality, synthesizing the piano history until then, but also foretelling the future.
Recorded in Santa Marcelina College, in Sao Paulo, the disc has impressive audio quality.

Why hear it: this high quality disc also includes the first world recording of Beethoven’s
sketches for the work, and a booklet with 173 pages, with a text in English and Portuguese
about the piece.'

The journalist Hugo Cals wrote for JBOnline newspaper:

'The first classical music SACD ever made in Brazil hits stores:

Rio – Classical music is a sofisticated genre with a selected audience with refined ears.
Although it is not at the Top Ten list or does not bring thousands to gigantic concerts, the
symphonic elegance of violins, flutes and other instruments has many followers around the
world. Audiophiles, the fans of this kind of music always look for sound quality in the available
titles. In October it will be released in Brazil,the first Brazilian SACD (Super Audio) of this genre,
a new technology which encompasses a much larger sound spectrum – which means more
quality – than normal CDs. JBOnline asked retired civil engineer and classical music specialist,
Carlos Eduardo Muniz da Silva, to review this disc.

Here is his complete text:

I have just received one copy from the not yet released auspicious Brazilian record (release
date: October 2007) first calssical music SACD made in Brazil. It is the Beethoven’s Diabelli
Variations Op. 120, for the very first time using historical tuning on a modern instrument. The
interpreter of this huge work is the Brazilian pianist Marco Alcantara, who also wrote the
booklet with 173 pages, in English and Portuguese. The booklet has a CD case on its back.

The composition is inserted in the spiritual, last period of Beethoven’s works, in which the
master’s pieces exuberantly sublimate in such a way that it does not find similar in the
universal history of music. Therefore, it is an auspicious iniciative, when calssical music has
been so despised by the phonographic industry, specially in Brazil.

About the work, it does record Anton Diabelli’s intension, who was, by the way, also a
composer and a music editor. A waltz of his own would receive variations composed by the
most important composers known by him, including Franz Schubert and an eleven-year-old
boy, Franz Liszt. At first, Beethoven denied the proposition, claiming that the waltz was not
musically worthwhile, which does not prevent him to, at the end, compose these variations
that have become one of his best and most important works.

About the future release, besides the artistic aspect of the interpretation, we must praise
the graphic excellency. It does not please me, though, the choosen Beethoven’s face, which
looks like a TV comedian. The incorporated smile in his semblance has nothing to do with the
seriousness of Bonn’s master. Anyway, it must be praised the text written by the Brazilian
pianist, who showed a rare musical wisdom, specially about Beethoven’s last period.

I must confess that, at a first audition, the timbre quality of the piano using the historical
tuning did not please me, and sounded, to my ears, lacking brightness and emotion. By the
way, it must be said that the piece itself, which has a high musical value, is completly devoided
from ‘páthos’, in comparison with other piano works from the composer.

I believe that this aspect I had just mentioned is not present, at least so clearly, in other
recordings I have heard using traditional tuning. I compared this recording with Argentinian
pianist Daniel Barenboim, which at first, sounded more fiery and expressive, thanks to the
traditional sonority my ears were used to. Nevertheless, at a second audition, I noticed that
my lack of brightness impression was totally wrong. This time the timbre produced by the
historical tuning pleased me more, which sounded closer to what we are used to, plus the
extra offered by the super audio format.

About the artist, one can see he is a scholar and has profound knowledge of this work, which
besides his evident virtues, would already be enough to make this disc enthusiastically
recommended to high level conception consumers. It is masterfully modelled with a level of
musical understanding and interpretation in perfect synchrony with the piece’s huge
dimension.'

At the end of the month, Ronaldo Mendes wrote for Correio Web:

'Beethoven revisited

For three years Marco Alcantara studied Beethoven’s life. The result of this young pianist
dedication can be checked in Beethoven Diabelli Variations, a new CD release from Sui
Generis. Even though the work has been recorded by masters like Daniel Baremboim and
Vladimir Ashkenazy, these 33 variations played by Mr. Alcantara have a unique style.

One thing that can possibly explain the difference in this recording is that Mr. Alcantara
chose a tuning similar to Beethoven’s (a historical tuning). He guarantees, nonetheless, his
preference for the modern piano. "Despite being very enlightening, frankly the instrument just
doesn’t sound good to me and I am convinced that the modern piano is the best vehicle for
Beethoven’s keyboard music", he explains.

Beethoven composed the Diabelli Variations before working on his Ninth Symphony. The
piece is different from everything else the German composer wrote. It looks like it was
composed to relieve the tense moments while writing the Missa Solemnis. During his time,
Diabelli was the owner of a publishing music company. He asked various composers to write a
variation on a theme of his.

Beethoven did not answer, but four years later he had not one, but the 33 variations
recorded here. Marco Alcantara’s recording brings another unique feature: it is the first
classical music SACD (Super Audio) made in Brazil. It comes with a 173-page booklet in English
and Portuguese and some Beethoven’s sketches for the work.'

July, 2007

The audio magazine Áudio e Vídeo published the first Brazilian review of our SACD. Read what
Fernando Andrette wrote:
 'This month’s highlitght is undoubtedly the beautiful SACD from the Brazilian pianist Marco
Alcantara. It is amazing the quantity of information that comes within its 176-page booklet.

All done by the musician.

On the Acknowledgments page, Marco Alcantara wrote: "it is finally over. This SACD, which I
believe to be the first Brazilian classical music SACD, gave me lots of work. But now, after all
these years of suffering, I am happy with the final result."

On the preface, which is an interview with the pianist, Mr. Alcantara explains what is the disc
and why it gave him so much work.

"- What exactly is this CD?

- It is the world’s first recording, using historical tuning, of Beethoven’s most important work
for piano, the Diabelli Variations Opus 120. It includes some of the sketches written by
Beethoven of the work, that I’ve chosen and edited, material never before commercially
released.

- Why have you decided to write the text for the booklet?

- I write, first of all, to learn more; because while writing I test and organize what I know.

- Why did you record them using historical tuning? What difference does it make?

- The short answer would be: because I had the chance to try it and I liked it. The historical
tuning we used, the Young # 1, is not as radical as many others and, therefore, not so different
from what we are accustomed to hearing."

It is a historical recording that you must know, made by a great, dedicated and talented
musician.

On the same preface the interviewer asks Mr. Alcantara a pertinent question, about the
possibility of this matherial being too technical to the listener, since it had never been
recorded before. And the pianist’s asnwer is brilliant: "When we come into contact with a work
of art we ask ourselves what it is, we try to understand it. That’s what I’ve done: I’ve put extra
material in this CD so people can know more about how Beethoven composed one of the most
important pieces ever written for the piano."

The technical quality makes this recording even more important: the care in choosing the
piano, location, tuning, but above all that, the interpretation are impeccable!

It is an obligatory disc for anyone who likes classical music or not.

Even if you should go to the Himalayas to get this disc, it would be worth it.'
The newspaper Correio do Povo published this review from Daniel Soares:

'Rare Beethoven in commented edition

The Brazilian pianist Marco Alcantara is ahead of one of the world most important classical
music releases, the Beethoven Diabelli Variations (Sui Generis). Besides the historical value of
the pieces, the disc is the first SACD (a high performance audio system) made in Brazil. It also
brings, for the first time ever, the piece recorded using a historical tuning and Beethoven’s
sketches for the work.

The Austrian music editor Anton Diabelli was known for getting variations on his music from
people like Schubert, Hummel, Czerny and Liszt. From Beethoven, he got 33 variations,
considered by many his greatest work for the piano.

To reach the piece’s original sense, Mr. Alcantara’s piano used a tuning called Thomas Young
n.1. The result, already praised in many different magazines, is a vigorous, liric elegant and
precise interpretation. The disc also has a huge booklet, with commentaries on the piece.'

June, 2007

Another program on Radio Cultura of Sao Paulo. Probably the most famous radio program
about piano in Brazil, Pianíssimo, played our disc Beethoven Diabelli Variations. We were
honored with the positive critic received from pianist Gilberto Tinetti.

The american audio magazine The Absolute Sound published in June/July edition a review
about our SACD. Andrew Quint wrote:

'The history of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Op.120 is familiar. Anton Diabelli, an Austrian music
publisher, solicited variations on a waltz theme of his own devising from dozens of composers
including Schubert, Hummel, Czerny, and Liszt. Beethoven initially declined—he didn’t like
Diabelli’s theme or the concept of the project—but then proceeded to write 33 variations for
what many consider to be his greatest keyboard work.

Brazilian pianist Marco Alcantata has made the first recording of the Diabellis to utilize
“historical tuning” and also programs 8 ½ minutes of Beethoven’s sketches for the piece, some
as brief as 11 seconds. The disc comes with a 176-page booklet (including 13 pages of
footnotes and references) that is exhaustively informative. Alcantara’s performance is solid,
coherent, and considered account. He communicates fully the wealth of Beethoven’s invention
and imagination, the three sublime variations in C minor (Nos. 29–31) creating a mood of
deep, spiritual introspection.

The DSD stereo recording offers wonderfully variegated piano sound. It’s bright and a bit
clangy at times, but this has as much to do with the instrument’s tuning as with recording
technique. Worthwhile.'

May, 2007

Marco Alcantara was interviewed by maestro Julio Medaglia on his radio program
Contraponto, on Radio Cultura of Sao Paulo.

Read what Gary Lemco wrote about our SACD at Audiophile Audition:

'In a rather daunting, encyclopedic fashion, Brazilian pianist and the Sui Generis label have
collaborated on a thickly annotated edition of Beethoven's C Major Variations on a Theme of
Diabelli, along with over eight minutes of Beethoven's protean sketches, the few that still exist
for this magnum opus. Alcantara's piano has been tuned according to the well-tempered
system that conforms to Beethoven's original sense of aural chromatics. [It's not that different
from the normal - not like quarter-tone music!...Ed.] For those who relish the physical nature
of acoustics and fine tuning, the 173-page booklet provides innumerable details of pitch,
harmonic series, and deviations in various modalities. Czerny and Badura-Skoda have been
Alcantara's guides as to the performance-practice to be followed in Beethoven's late keyboard
works.

This release qualifies as the first Brazilian classical SACD, and although only two-channel
stereo the audiophile aspect of the disc is noted in a bright sound of great clarity. Alcantara's
approach belies the thunderous, bravura style; he tries to provide a probing, intellectual
intimacy to the huge structural design of the work, relishing its interplay of distinct lines and its
occasional moments of Homeric humor. The older sound of the piano conforms to the archaic
elements in the music itself, such as imitations in Variation 14 of the French overture, of three-
voice polyphony, and of Bach and Handel's styles, respectively.

Some real furioso playing, as in Variation 17, Allegro, with aggressive ostinati. Elegant pearly-
play in Alcantara's tone, and the slick, even surface will remind auditors of Kuerti in several
instances. Variation No. 20 well sounds akin to the opening of the last movement of Op. 110,
cross-fertilized with the harmonics of Op. 111. The Mozart Variation passes all too quickly, but
its harmonic daring is noted. Alcantara's handling of rapid repeated notes and broken-octave
filigree quite startles, shades of John Ogden. The Sketches section of the CD is a rare delight, a
peek into Hephaestus' workshop. Fragmentary, hesitating, experimental in their own right, the
"bagatelles" according the little C Major Waltz allow us to sit on the piano bench with the
composer, searching for golden, musical threads.'

April, 2007

The Canadian classical music magazine Whole Note chose our SACD as the disc of the month.
Read Jamie Parker's review:

'Brazilian pianist Marco Alcantara has devoted himself deeply to Beethoven’s Diabelli
Variations, and he’s just released the fruits of his labour on a Super Audio CD on the Sui
Generis label. The Diabelli Variations take an hour to perform, and they test a pianist in every
way possible. The mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges of tackling this
monumental work deter most pianists. I am fortunate to have heard it twice in the last year.
Once last summer when Robert Silverman performed it at the Festival of the Sound in Parry
Sound, and again last fall when I was on the jury of the Esther Honens International Piano
Competition, performed by Min Soo Sohn, who became the First Laureate of that competition.
Both performances were excellent.

Everything about this new recording speaks to Alcantara’s tremendous sense of

commitment to this work, and to this project. I’ve never seen better CD liner notes in my life –
the booklet is a whopping 173 pages long, printed in English and Portuguese. Alcantara has
read and researched extensively, has included his performance of some of the early sketches
of this work, has used a historical tuning (one of the most stable of the many Well-Tempered
tuning systems), and written coherent, enjoyable, and very informative program notes.

Alcantara’s playing leaves nothing to be desired. You can hear the will of his personality
combined with moments of raucous humour, tenderness, reverence, and passion. In every
way, this recording is a stunning achievement.'

March, 2007

Our SACD just got its first review! Rad Bennett, music editor of SoundStage! magazine said in
his march column:
 'Once in a while a disc comes in that seems to stand above the others: all the details are
covered and right in place. Such a release is Marco Alcantara’s performance of Beethoven’s
Diabelli Variations on a two-channel SACD/CD from Sui Generis. Alcantara plays with flair,
precision, and lyricism on a piano tuned to the even-tempered scale known as "Thomas Young
#1." The tuning sounds a bit different from what we’re used to, though not startlingly so.
Information about the tuning, as well as lots about other subjects, are included in a 176-page
booklet. (The package is more like a paperback book whose back cover has a place for housing
a CD.) The notes about the Diabelli Variations themselves are fascinating -- one of the most
interesting things to me was a chart showing descriptions of the tempo of each of the 33
variations by Carl Czerny (1842), Wilhelm von Lenz (1850), Jürgen Uhde (1968), Alfred Brendel
(1984), and Alcantara (2006). The disc also includes Alcantara playing many of Beethoven’s
sketches for the piece. The sound is bright, accurate, and clean. Immersed in so much
multichannel audio every day, I’d forgotten how great a wonderful two-channel recording can
sound. This well-documented demonstration disc reminded me in no uncertain terms.'