Ludwig van Beethoven’s initial response to publisher/composer Anton Diabelli’s request for a single variation on his waltz theme (to be published with those of 49 other composers), was an emphatic “No”. He called the theme “a cobbler’s patch”, but later reconsidered and supplied Diabelli with not one, but thirty-three variations, his largest and most enigmatic composition for piano. In the spirit of the time, Beethoven subjected Diabelli’s theme to an evolutionary process. Following that same spirit, Edmund Battersby has scrutinized the work anew, through his exploration of the virtues and limitations of two instruments – the modern Steinway and a replica instrument of the most prominent piano-maker in Vienna of Beethoven’s time, Konrad Graf.