Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Paganini, (Kissin)

Brahms was not a showman, and rarely wrote music which aimed at being technically difficult. But when he did, he out-Liszted Liszt. The Paganini Variations, as you can tell from their main title, are not just a fully-fledged concert work but also a set of exercises for study, featuring technical challenges that are often more than a little obscene [19:24]. As always, the variations are also musically dazzling in their variety and invention. Kissin plays the faster variations with astounding bravura, [11:29] dynamic control [16:05], and articulation [16:49], and is exquisitely delicate in the slower ones [07:45]. Book I 00:00 – Theme 00:25 – Var.1. Churning sixths and thirds. Already extremely difficult. 00:49 – Var.2. Sixths in the LH, and rapid embellished octaves in the RH. Toybox-like sounds. 01:14 – Var.3. A single line divided between the hands scurries along in the new 6/8 meter with upbeats. Repeated notes divided rapidly between hands. 01:40 – Var.4. Accented trills and very lar