Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel information
Piano composition by Johannes Brahms
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
Piano variations by Johannes Brahms
Brahms in 1860
Other name
Handel Variations
Opus
24
Composed
1861 (1861)
Dedication
Clara Schumann
Performed
7 December 1861 (1861-12-07): Hamburg
The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B♭ major, HWV 434. They are known as his Handel Variations.
The music writer Donald Tovey has ranked it among "the half-dozen greatest sets of variations ever written".[1] Biographer Jan Swafford describes the Handel Variations as "perhaps the finest set of piano variations since Beethoven", adding, "Besides a masterful unfolding of ideas concluding with an exuberant fugue with a finish designed to bring down the house, the work is quintessentially Brahms in other ways: the filler of traditional forms with fresh energy and imagination; the historical eclectic able to start off with a gallant little tune of Handel's, Baroque ornaments and all, and integrate it seamlessly into his own voice, in a work of massive scope and dazzling variety."[2]
^Matthews, Denis, Brahms Piano Music, Ariel Music BBC Publications, 1986, p. 31.
^Swafford, Jan, Johannes Brahms: A Biography, Vintage Books, 1999, p. 228.
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