Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann, Op.23, by J. Brahms

Transcribed for Piano Solo by John W. Pratt, PDF $19.75

Brahms wrote his beautiful Variationen über ein Thema von Robert Schumann for piano four hands, but essentially all the musical ideas are captured in this transcription for solo piano. The variations range from delicately decorative to spectral to warmly Brahmsian to bravura and even witty. The last, suffused with sadness, solemnity, resignation, and reaffirmation, combines a funeral march with the theme, which is known as Schumann's last idea because it came to him at night shortly before his attempted suicide and final commitment to an asylum. 

Piano score, 21 pages; Total, 23 pages.