Rudolf Serkin专辑介绍：Performer: Rudolf Serkin Orchestra: Cleveland Orchestra Conductor: George Szell Rudolf Serkin, George Szell, and the Cleveland Orchestra came together in 1966 to produce one of the great versions of Brahms first piano concerto. The analog recording is well balanced to capture both Serkin's elegant fingerwork and the orchestral nuances of the Cleveland Orchestra. The forces also appear to be in sync on the interpretation. Pacing ranges from relentlessly propulsive to an achingly delicate forward motion. Absolute commitment shines in every measure. The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B-flat major, HWV 434. The great music writer Donald Tovey has ranked it among "the half-dozen greatest sets of variations ever written".Biographer Jan Swafford describes the Handel Variations as "perhaps the finest set of piano variations since Beethoven", adding, "Besides a masterful unfolding of ideas concluding with an exuberant fugue with a finish designed to bring down the house, the work is quintessentially Brahms in other ways: the filler of traditional forms with fresh energy and imagination; the historical eclectic able to start off with a gallant little tune of Handel's, Baroque ornaments and all, and integrate it seamlessly into his own voice, in a work of massive scope and dazzling variety."