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Variations on CD

Joanna Kacperek's debut album is a fascinating program of variations, and in some cases variations with interesting links. Brahms's early Op18b was dedicated to Clara Schumann. Clara's Op.20 was dedicated to her future husband, Robert. Robert's early set of Variations WoO31 takes the Allegretto from Beethoven's Symphony No.7 and goes through an extraordinary journey with this famous tune. Beethoven himself is represented by his Op.34, which, along with the Eroica variations Op.35 were the first of his many sets of variations that he considered special enough to be assigned opus numbers. The Op.34 set, in the composer's words "have the worth of a work as it is quite a new invention to write variations such a manner as this, as without a doubt none have appeared like this." This challenging and virtuosic album marks an auspicious debut of an impressive new talent.