Description

Brahms began his career as a pianist, and his contributions to 19th-century piano music were significant in two key ways. First, following in the footsteps of Schubert and Schumann, he cultivated the small, lyrical form. Simultaneously, as Beethoven's successor, he embraced larger forms like the piano sonata and variation cycle. Brahms's two variation cycles, Opus 21, published in 1862, place considerable technical demands on the performer. In the first cycle, built on a lyrical theme in D major, the technique of figurative and contrapuntal alterations is highly developed. Additionally, the "Variations on a Hungarian Song" offer a refreshing challenge for advanced pianists, owing to their distinctive metrical features and virtuosic character. We were fortunate to enlist renowned Canadian musicologist Margit L. McCorkle as the editor for this work. Together with her husband, she also compiled the "Thematic-Bibliographic Catalogue" of Brahms's complete compositions.