Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Schumann op.9...

[pastoralguy]

Although I love Brahms' piano music I didn't know this work until I picked up a cd in Oxfam of it being played by Marie-Joseph Jude. Upon looking for more information, I found a Gramophone critic writing that he would be happy if he never heard the work again!

It sounds a lovely piece to me and I'm looking forward to hearing further performances of it. Does anyone else have an opinion?

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks indeed, Roehre. I'll investigate all these works tomorrow.

[Roehre]

Although I love Brahms' piano music I didn't know this work until I picked up a cd in Oxfam of it being played by Marie-Joseph Jude. Upon looking for more information, I found a Gramophone critic writing that he would be happy if he never heard the work again!

It sounds a lovely piece to me and I'm looking forward to hearing further performances of it. Does anyone else have an opinion?

It is IMO also a lovely piece.
It is meant to be a piece of love to both Robert and Clara Schumann, based on a theme of his and dedicated to her.
It quotes from both their music and there is more than one theme which Brahms uses/incorporates here.

The theme stems from Schumann's Albumblatt no.1 (from Lieder und Gesänge opus 96), but it is also the second Albumblatt from that set that is paraphrased in the 9th variation. Clara Schumann's Impromptu opus 5 no.1 appears (shortly: blink and you miss it) in the tenth variation.

What is remarkable in Brahms' music here is the freedom which he allows himself. These are fantasy-variations, leaving the theme quickly behind him and allowing himself to use harmonies and periodicity which seem to show hardly relationship with Schumann's Albumblatt. This means that the work is at first hearing possibly a goalless fantasy.

It must be this aspect which has escaped that Gramophone critic. Cloth ears I'm afraid IMHO.

At second hearing it starts to expose its intricacies, and for a 20-year old composer this is a remarkably ripe set of variations. Many tricks of the trade -i.e. Goldberg-variations- can be found, e.g. 4 canons, including a mirrored one, variations based on the bass-line and not the melody itself (similar to Beethoven Don Giovanni in the Diabelli !)
Written with love, a lovely piece.

[richardfinegold]

Although I love Brahms' piano music I didn't know this work until I picked up a cd in Oxfam of it being played by Marie-Joseph Jude. Upon looking for more information, I found a Gramophone critic writing that he would be happy if he never heard the work again!

It sounds a lovely piece to me and I'm looking forward to hearing further performances of it. Does anyone else have an opinion?

I just recently discovered this piece of music as well. The recording that I have is Garrick Ohlsson and the two disc set is listed as Brahms "complete" Variations
for Piano, on the Hyperion label. I have no other recording with which to compare but I derived a lot of pleasure from the discs.

[kea]

It is IMO also a lovely piece.
It is meant to be a piece of love to both Robert and Clara Schumann, based on a theme of his and dedicated to her.
It quotes from both their music and there is more than one theme which Brahms uses/incorporates here.

The theme stems from Schumann's Albumblatt no.1 (from Lieder und Gesänge opus 96), but it is also the second Albumblatt from that set that is paraphrased in the 9th variation. Clara Schumann's Impromptu opus 5 no.1 appears (shortly: blink and you miss it) in the tenth variation.

The last variation also alludes to the first of Robert's Impromptus on a Theme by Clara op. 5. And I feel like there are references to Robert's other set of variations on a Clara theme from the Concert sans orchestre Op. 14, but I can't prove it.

Clara wrote a set of variations on the same Albumblätt, the same year, I think. This was around the time Robert started suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations and became suicidal iirc.

(It's also interesting to note that this piece with all its canons was written immediately after the Trio Op. 8, a much freer and more "romantic" work that could have been written by early Schumann or even Wagner [it quotes Robert's old favourite An die ferne Geliebte at one point], and the culmination of numerous such works from Brahms's "apprenticeship". Perhaps Schumann's sickness instilled in him a fear of madness and the irrational, and thus a turn to a more "classicizing" idiom? After the Op. 9 came the two Serenades, the first Piano Concerto and other such works modeled on the example of Beethoven to a greater or lesser extent.)

The Schumann Variations mark the point where Brahms's mature style emerges almost fully-formed imo (there was still a bit more forming to do, most of which had been accomplished by the time he finished the Concerto). No other real "periods", just lots and lots of refinement from here on. He had the skill from Op. 1 of course, but seems to have had a hard time figuring out what to do with it before now.

[verismissimo]

Although I love Brahms' piano music I didn't know this work until I picked up a cd in Oxfam of it being played by Marie-Joseph Jude. Upon looking for more information, I found a Gramophone critic writing that he would be happy if he never heard the work again!

It sounds a lovely piece to me and I'm looking forward to hearing further performances of it. Does anyone else have an opinion?

One of the greatest pleasures of these boards is to read about a work that one had previously noticed only in passing and turn one's full attention to it.

So thank yous - to pastoral for flagging it up and to both roehre and kea for their enlightened and enlightening notes.

I may listen to Julius Katchen's recording (the only one I have) all day.

[BBMmk2]

I have this work as part of Julius Katchen's complete cycle on Decca. I really must agree with verissmissimo here, with boarders' references to works that are duly neglected and flagging them up, which makes us to prompt our brain cells and pay more attention!! Another recordings?

[Ferretfancy]

I have this work as part of Julius Katchen's complete cycle on Decca. I really must agree with verissmissimo here, with boarders' references to works that are duly neglected and flagging them up, which makes us to prompt our brain cells and pay more attention!! Another recordings?

I first got to know this beautiful work from Katchen's recording, first on LP and later in the CD box. Nowadays I find the close and dry recording rather lacking in atmosphere. Luckily there's are very fine performances available from Jorge Osorio on ASV, and Louis Lortie on Chandos, both still available on Amazon. Osorio is wonderfully inward sounding in the quiet opening, which Katchen makes curiously matter of fact. Osorio's disc also includes the Handel Variations and fine performances of the Four Ballades. I haven't heard the Lortie for a while, but he includes Schumann's Bunte Blatter, which was the inspiration for Brahms at the time when he was already anxious about the composer's state of mind.

I think my favourite Brahms performance is by Michelangeli in the fourth Ballade on DG, he takes it very slowly, but it's magic in every note.

[richardfinegold]

It is IMO also a lovely piece.
It is meant to be a piece of love to both Robert and Clara Schumann, based on a theme of his and dedicated to her.
It quotes from both their music and there is more than one theme which Brahms uses/incorporates here.

The theme stems from Schumann's Albumblatt no.1 (from Lieder und Gesänge opus 96), but it is also the second Albumblatt from that set that is paraphrased in the 9th variation. Clara Schumann's Impromptu opus 5 no.1 appears (shortly: blink and you miss it) in the tenth variation.

What is remarkable in Brahms' music here is the freedom which he allows himself. These are fantasy-variations, leaving the theme quickly behind him and allowing himself to use harmonies and periodicity which seem to show hardly relationship with Schumann's Albumblatt. This means that the work is at first hearing possibly a goalless fantasy.

It must be this aspect which has escaped that Gramophone critic. Cloth ears I'm afraid IMHO.

At second hearing it starts to expose its intricacies, and for a 20-year old composer this is a remarkably ripe set of variations. Many tricks of the trade -i.e. Goldberg-variations- can be found, e.g. 4 canons, including a mirrored one, variations based on the bass-line and not the melody itself (similar to Beethoven Don Giovanni in the Diabelli !)
Written with love, a lovely piece.

After listening to the piece again last night, I suspect that it is the "goalless fantasy" aspect that has mitigated against the work being more frequently played and recorded. It is fascinating to hear Brahms explore different harmonies and forms. It is fascinating to compare this work with Brahms late Piano Music, with which I am quite familiar. I had always regarded those late pieces as being some of Brahms most forward looking music, but the earlier work seems to have many of the same harmonic exploration. The late works represent more finely crafted pieces, showing the mature Composer in his full mastery.
Kea's point about Brahms having developed his basic sound at a young age is also borne out by the Op. 8 Piano Trio. Although he revised it 30 years later, most of the changes were structural, basically tightening up the musical argument.

[Lento]

Does anyone have an opinion regarding the performance by Sheila Arnold on Spotify? I am unfamiliar with other readings, so have nothing with which to compare.

[richardfinegold]

Does anyone have an opinion regarding the performance by Sheila Arnold on Spotify? I am unfamiliar with other readings, so have nothing with which to compare.

i think that I listened to some of that prior to purchasing the Ohlsson. It made me interested enough in the work to further pursue it, but I picked the Ohlsson recording because:
1) I prefer the couplings, and
2) I have heard Ohlsson many times in Concert and am somewhat of a "fan".

[teamsaint]

Yes, good flagging up PG, and fascinating observations all round. One that has avoided my attention so far.

But the big box comes to the rescue, and I have the Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy to keep me company today.

[Sir Velo]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the two piano version. Brahms was an inveterate reviser of his compositions throughout his career and this is another instance of how the less familiar version adds another dimension to the work. There is a committed interpretation from Angelich and Maisky (fille) on the Argerich and Friends 2010 Lugano Festival CD for anyone interested in hearing Brahms' initial thoughts in richer quasi orchestral sonorities than the solo version provides.

[Roehre]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the two piano version. Brahms was an inveterate reviser of his compositions throughout his career and this is another instance of how the less familiar version adds another dimension to the work. There is a committed interpretation from Angelich and Maisky (fille) on the Argerich and Friends 2010 Lugano Festival CD for anyone interested in hearing Brahms' initial thoughts in richer quasi orchestral sonorities than the solo version provides.

Good one. Completely forgotten about it

[gurnemanz]

Yes, good flagging up PG, and fascinating observations all round. One that has avoided my attention so far.

But the big box comes to the rescue, and I have the Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy to keep me company today.

I notice Brilliant have re-done that big Brahms Box with some differences. I don't need it. I did get the complete songs as a separate box - some very good young German singers in there.