Brahms - Paganini Variations [Kissin] Brahms features really highly in my Blog, this year there's 5 entries, that's 12-13% of my Blog!, last year there were 36, that's 10% as well, that's a lot of Brahms, not sure why he dominates over many others, i love Schubert even more, but he features less?, and Chopin is just as good, but he features only a fifth as much!, my Blog churns up crazy statistics.
Evgeny Kissin is a Russian Pianist, now 39 years old, he recorded this disc in 1997, the booklet front cover shot [by Sergey Bermeniev], is a very close up shot of Kissin in soft black and white, in a thoughtful pose, with his name in large letters, and the Composers / works in tiny letters, the RCA seal adds a splash of colour.
There is so much to enjoy in this work, in essence it's made up of 30 tracks [however kissin doesn't repeat the theme in the Second Book], so 29 very short pieces, representing almost every conceivable possibility with the chosen theme, the Variations that excited me the most were 1, 4, 9, 11-12 & 14 from the First Book, and 4 & 12 from the Second Book, very much in the same vein as the Claudio Arrau version i played last year [11th December 2010], the most magical moment is towards the end of the First Book, with Variations 11 & 12 the highlight, the recording is lovely, with an excellent amount of treble / bass contrast, though favouring the treble slightly, which is where the recording sounds gorgeous.
Variation 11 - What lovely chimes! [0:00-0:15], sounds like a huge musical box, the background chimes in the left hand are a delight under Kissin [0:16+], i just love Composers who aren't afraid to use the high treble to wonderful effect, and here we have Brahms creating a delicate study of the upper echelons of the keyboard.
Variation 12 - Following on straight after is another similar Variation, using the piano to chime like tinkling bells, the melody is in the left hand to start with [0:00-0:13], with the treble right as accompaniment, but then they swap places [0:13-0:26], and then they revert back again [0:26+], but soon the switches become blurred, and like two voices trying to be heard, both have melodies, one high / treble, the other low / bass-ish, i think the treble wins in the end, a beautiful set of 'twin' Variations.
Here's Yuja Wang playing the First Book on YouTube, the Eleventh Variation is at [6:47], and the Twelfth at [8:02].
