Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Johannes Brahms

Variations on a Theme of Schumann, op. 23

 

Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Schumann, op. 23, published in 1863, were based on the famous “Theme of the Spirits” that the ill Schumann claimed, in 1854, to have transcribed as it had been dictated to him by Mendelssohn and Schubert in a dream. The theme is followed by ten variations; the first one is decorative in character, but the second, with its vigorous repeated chords, is an explicit homage to Schumann’s style. The third variation – a sort of impromptu – is followed by a ghostly one in the minor, which contrasts with the gaiety of the impassioned romanticism of the fifth and sixth variations. In the seventh variation we perceive the beginnings of a dialogue between the two instruments, whereas the eighth is noteworthy above all for its agitated nature. The ninth variation is serious and almost declamatory in tone, and the tenth function as a sad leave-taking.

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