Hyperion Records

With the exception of his Polish Dances, the Variations for Piano, Op 48, was probably Scharwenka’s most popular work for piano solo during his lifetime. He certainly played it often at his concerts, and in 1919 it was performed by the young Claudio Arrau in Berlin at a concert given to celebrate Scharwenka’s fiftieth anniversary as a performing artist. The well-known German critic Karl Schelle, in reviewing a concert given by Scharwenka in January 1880 which included the Variations, praises him not only as a fine virtuoso performer but also as a composer, stating the Variations to be a fine work of great creative power.

The theme, in D minor, is of a dark and sombre nature, and in the first published edition there were twenty variations. Scharwenka revised and condensed the work some years later, reducing the number of variations to twelve and in some cases changing their order, and it is this version which is recorded here.

from notes by Martin Eastick © 1992