Schiff's passion for this music, and his ability to communicate it, is apparent in every bar...The two instruments he plays each have a lean tone and the interpretation of the Diabellis doesn't alter much. Played on the Bechstein, the work's close relationship to Op. 111...is obvious.

A feast for piano connoisseurs – played with unflinching self-belief and wrapped in demonstration-quality sound

I've been convinced of the success with which pianist and both instruments inhabit everything undertaken here. It's an impressive achievement.

No pianist has a greater awareness of sound-colour than Andras Schiff...The Brodmann, despite its relative lack of power, offers the broader palette. The Bechstein projects with greater strength and a beguiling singing tone.

That performance revels in the very lack of homogeneity in the soundworld of the instrument itself, with its distinctly different character in each register...Balances and perspectives shift constantly within the music, and Schiff exploits the effects quite wonderfully...The whole world of the variations opens out

The differences are fascinating...Yet either piano’s textures and reverberations would mean little without Schiff’s artistry and intelligence...The Diabelli Variations have never seemed so playfully filled with irony, comic pratfalls and the wild goose chase. Whatever instrument he uses, Schiff rewards the closest listening.

The predictably penetrating, intense playing of the mighty Diabellis on this disc is to be expected from Andras Schiff, but there’s a twist: he does them twice...The result is a primer on pianism.

Something of a beauty contest is likely to ensue when the same work is played on two different instruments, and there is a surprising overall winner...[the Variations prove] more colourful and textural on the older instrument, with all its ticks, thuds and bell-like sweetness.