Elias Ackerley, piano: BRAHMS — Variations on a Theme by Paganini

JOHANNES BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Paganini
Elias Ackerley, piano

Performed on Thursday, December 12, 2019
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

Perhaps no single piece has inspired more composers than the final caprice from Niccolò Paganini’s set of 24 caprices for solo violin. Paganini himself used the melody as material for other works, as did Liszt, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Lutosławski, and so many others.

One of the more notable examples of music based on Paganini’s famous tune is by Johannes Brahms. His Variations on a Theme of Paganini for solo piano is a tour de force of bravura virtuosity and compositional skill, written when the composer was just 30 years old. The theme and variations form was well established by the mid-19th century, and Brahms, ever the classicist, employed it on more than one occasion to display a myriad of compositional treatments on a single subject.

Brahms’s work uses the melody of the 24th caprice as a vehicle to explore a wide variety of piano technique, as well. Its twenty-eight variations are set into two books of fourteen, and the first book is typically understood to be flashy and technically brilliant, while the second is more lyrical and expressive. Brahms also called the collection “Studies for Piano,” in his usual understated way. But this music is anything but understated. The pyrotechnics of the piano writing is so challenging that his friend and confidant Clara Schumann called the piece “Witches’s Variations” because the work was diabolically confounding to play (or perhaps because witchcraft was needed to perform it as written!).

Despite its difficulties, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini has become a staple of the piano repertoire, calling for the most nimble and expressive virtuosity to match the thoroughly creative voice of the composer.
—David Serkin Ludwig

#CurtisIsHere

[keronfletcher]

Fiendishly difficult music to play. Performed with technical brilliance, sensitive touch and real power and beauty. Elias Ackerley is a name to be remembered. Bravo Elias!

[donaldcoppersmith]

Clara Shumann called it, “Hexenvariation”- Brahms Variations on a Theme by Paganini played by
Elias Ackerly who is probably out of the school of witches and wizards casts this hex on his audience. He learned magic well. Reading about the complexity and difficulty of the piece is a legend in piano literature. Mr. Ackerly, like a wizard, casts his spell on his listener with his creative and expressive magic. Bravo!

[JohnDoe-jtju]

An old favorite of mine. Variation starting at 4:50 always had a bit of a haunting sound to me.

[erefxul]

I love the end of this variations. Impressive but he seems uselessly on a rush.