Diabelli

For her diamond jubilee, the 83-year-old Tharp has remounted a major Beethoven work, “Diabelli,” from 1998, and created a major new Glass dance, “Slacktide,” of which UC Santa Barbara was a co-commissioner.

Both scores featured live music, Russian pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev playing Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations offstage and Third Coast Percussion performing Glass’ “Aguas da Amazonia” in the pit.

Beethoven’s 33 variations on a theme by a certain businessman named Diabelli seems tailor-made for Tharp.

Historically, composers have gone one of two ways: by revisiting the beginning, as in the Aria of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, or with the potential for further development, as in Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations.

Slowly, slowly, Mitsuko Uchida adds to her Beethoven discography — these “Diabelli” Variations now joining her five sonatas and two surveys of the piano concertos, with Kurt Sanderling and Simon Rattle.