About This Song
About "Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56b" by Aloys Kontarsky
Brahms's own four-hand arrangement of the Haydn Variations is a muscular, architectural feat. The famous St. Anthony Chorale theme gets treated like a block of marble—chiseled into stately, then swirling, then thunderous shapes. The Kontarskys capture both the scholarly rigor and the sheer physical joy of two pianists in lockstep.