The C minor variations for piano, written in 1806, quickly became popular. As the only set to take up the Baroque form again, it stands apart from all Beethoven's other variations. It is, stylistically, a remarkably prescient work as well, a forecast of the revival of Baroque rhythmic development and harmonic movement that was to produce Romanticism, or its musical form. The piece was to become the basis for Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuses. Beethoven's set follows Handel's passacaglia form closely, imposing only a classically articulated sense of climax within the phrase and over the series of variations, as the first generation of Romantic composers were to do. Its immediate popularity testifies to the direction in which music and taste was moving. Beethoven was not happy about this essay in early Romanticism, professing later to be ashamed of it.

Originally posted by elfen:
I played the piece recently. It is an excellent piece to learn idioms Beethoven used in his music. I think you can find almost any technical problems you'll see up in Beethoven sonatas up to Appassionata. Obviously it is a fantastic music by itself.
What I found most difficult was bringing the variations (fragments rather since they are only eight bars long!) together in a whole convincing manner. Keep in mind that there are fast slow and fast moments within it like a multi-movement sonata.

I am curious about your opinions on the tempo as a whole. I was learned to keep the tempo strict throughout variations, but the characters of fast-moving and slow ones are hard to grasp. [/b]