Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Handel

That's the theme.


That's the theme and first variation.

This is a monster of a piece, thirty minutes of brilliance and smash. I played it in high school. I had heard it on a record by Anievas, and was blown away. I told my teacher I wanted to play it. "When you're ready," she said. Three years later I was.


That's the final variation, number 25.

It flies. The treble clef sounds like trumpets when you're up to speed. Your hands are grabbing notes by the fistfuls and tossing them away in glittery chunks. You're slightly lifting off the piano seat to hammer these, and you're hot. Physically hot -- otherwise you can't handle this much force, at speed.

This piece is like a Percheron stallion. It grabs the bit and takes off -- until finally, all you can do is hang on as it thunders down the keyboard.


That's the Fugue, starting halfway down.

Today this was playing on the radio, as I drove to Improv. I tuned in at the imperious opening of the Fugue. Buh-DAH buh-DAHHHHH. Buh-DAH buh-DAHHHHH.

I parked and sat in the car, looking at green salal bushes, till it ended.

Art saves lives. This piece, like any art of such complexity and maturity, teaches us to walk forward, eyes open, into difficulty. Into greater and greater difficulty. The only way out is through.