Brahms: Variations on a theme by Schumann in F sharp minor, Op. 9

American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, whose Complete Chopin set was acclaimed as one of the most important anniversary releases of 2010, now turns to another significant, though often overlooked, body of Romantic piano music – Brahms’s complete variations.

The coruscatingly difficult Paganini variations, a bravura display of pyrotechnic virtuosity, frequently feature in piano competitions, performed to demonstrate extraordinary technique. In this performance, Garrick Ohlsson also displays remarkable musicality.

The Variations and Fugue on a theme of Handel is one of the summits of his entire keyboard output, showing the composer at the height of his powers. This 2-disc set also contains some little-known gems, including the wonderful Variations on an Original Theme.

With energy and sensitive virtuosity, the exceptional pianist Carmen Piazzini brings a new dimension of musicality and tone colour to the works of Schumann, Brahms and Schubert.

This CD is a fascinating encounter with the great musician and prize winning pianist in his home country of Argentina. “Through all the sounds in thecolourful dream of the earth, one soft long-drawn note can be heard by the one who listens in secret“ Robert Schumann wrote these lines from a poem by Friedrich Schlegel as a motto over the first movement of his famous “C major Fantasy Op. 17”. Carmen Piazzini’s interpretation turns this motto into captivating reality.

All three works on this CD were dedicated to Clara Schumann. Sheila Arnold writes: “Brahms Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann Op.9 are the key works on this CD. With astounding richness, they manage to evoke the ‘spirit’ of Robert Schumann, embodying and containing the ‘soul’ of all three main characters, Robert, Clara and Johannes.”

In 1853 three musical souls bound themselves together in a declaration of friendship and love. While Schumann bade farewell to composition before sinking into madness, Brahms and Clara, in their variations for piano, testified to the love they felt for the composer of Bunte Blätter. At once personal messages and expressions of admiration, these works reveal the innermost emotions of three creators.

The pianist Vanessa Wagner put together the programme for this recording in successive stages. The idea first began to form in concert when she began playing two of the pieces in a number of recitals, Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations and the Berio Cinque Variazione. As time went on, she read through and listened to many different works, from all periods. Some pieces automatically disqualified themselves because of their duration, but in the end she initially decided in favour of Haydn’s highly unconventional Variations in F minor and Brahms’ Variations on a theme from Bunte Blätter by his friend Robert Schumann, a work hardly ever played. Although the music of Rameau was not at first considered, when the pianist came across his Gavotte Variée the music seemed to fit in perfectly and create a natural balance with the rest of the programme.

Vanessa Wagner’s career itinerary has been meteoric. After obtaining a Premier Prix at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at the age of seventeen (in Dominique Merlet’s class), she entered the postgraduate cycle (class of Jean-François Heisser) as top student of her year. She came to the attention of Leon Fleisher and was admitted to the Cadenabbia Academy, where she was taught by several great masters of the keyboard. She was named ‘solo instrumental discovery of the year’ at the Victoires de la Musique in 1999. To date she has recorded five CDs devoted respectively to Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Mozart, Schumann, and Debussy, all of which have received numerous awards. She also participated in the Arte broadcast and Naïve DVD Les Pianos de la Nuit de La Roque-d’Anthéron, which won the award ‘Recommandé par Classica’.

Young pianist Hardy Rittner performs these very early piano pieces by Brahms.

Schumann heard Brahms performing these pieces and the rapturous reception he gave them made the young composer famous over night.

Rittner plays on a Johann Baptist Streicher Piano dated 1851 from the Collection by Gert Hecher, Vienna. So well preserved and cared for is this instrument that it still has many of its original strings!

This recording was made possible through the support of The Ivory Classics Foundation and the Council on Research and Creative Work as well as the Graduate Council for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Colorado

In September 1853, Johannes Brahms arrived for his first meeting with Robert and Clara Schumann at their home in Düseldorf. Brahms, a youthful age of twenty ("hardly more than a boy" were the words of Robert Schumann's protégé Albert Dietrich), made an immediate and powerful impression on the older master, who in October wrote his famous essay, New Paths proclaiming...