McDermott & Bronfman

Yefim Bronfman, piano & Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Chamber Music Series

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at 7pm Vilar Performing Arts Center

Acclaimed pianists Anne-Marie McDermott and Yefim Bronfman return to the stage in this compelling evening of keyboard masterworks. The concert opens with Handel's elegant Keyboard Suite, known for its austere fourth movement, the Sarabande. Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel follows, transforming a Baroque theme into a richly inventive and powerful set of variations. In the second half, the duo performs Brahms’ Sonata for Two Pianos—a dramatic and expansive work full of symphonic intensity.

Yefim Bronfman, piano
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

HANDEL Keyboard Suite in D minor, HWV 437
BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24
BRAHMS Sonata for Two Pianos in F minor, Op. 34b

All artists, programs, and pricing subject to change.

Keyboard Suite in D minor, HWV 437 (prior to 1733) GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685- 1759)

George Frideric Handel
mastered the keyboard at
an early age, presumably
smuggling a clavichord to the
top floor of the family home where he
could practice without being heard by
his disapproving parents. He developed
into a renowned keyboard virtuoso.
During his apprentice years in Rome,
his patron Cardinal Ottoboni arranged
a competition that pitted him against
Domenico Scarlatti; on the harpsichord,
the contest was a draw, but Handel
was declared the victor on the organ.
“Handel had an uncommon brilliancy
and command of finger,” wrote his first
biographer, John Mainwaring, in 1760,
“but what distinguished him from all
other players who possessed these
same qualities, was that amazing
fullness, force, and energy, which he
joined with them.”

He composed more than twenty
keyboard suites, the first set of which
(the so-called “Eight Great Suites”),
published in 1720, includes the beloved
“Harmonious Blacksmith” variations. A
second set appeared in 1733 in London,
though titled mostly in courtly French—
“Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin ...
Second Volume”—with extravagantly
decorative typography on the title
page. This set consisted of seven suites
plus two standalone chaconnes—one
with 61 (!) variations. Most of the suites
(including this one) are thought to have
been composed some while prior
to publication, perhaps even in the
opening years of the century. The work
played here is the third of those suites.
Its four movements are cast in dance
forms that were more-or-less standard
in Baroque harpsichord suites, their
names given in odd English spelling: a
gracious, duple-meter Allmand (better
known as an Allemande); a vigorous
triple-time Corrant (Courante); a
stately triple-meter Saraband with two
variations; and, to close, a sparkling Jigg
(Gigue) in 12/8 meter.

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 25 (1861) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-97)

Most sets of variations by
Baroque and Classical composers
were simplistic parades of clichés. A
few, however, explored variations with
extreme subtlety, works like Bach’s
Goldberg Variations or Beethoven’s
Diabelli Variations—the sorts of
pieces the primed Johannes Brahms’
imagination. An adept pianist, he
produced a handful of variations for
his instrument: in 1853, Variations on a
Theme by Robert Schumann; in 1857,
Variations on an Original Theme and
Variations on a Hungarian Song; in 1861,
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by
Handel; and in 1862-63, Variations on
a Theme by Paganini—plus, in 1861,
different Variations on a Theme by
Robert Schumann, this time for piano
four-hands. Brahms cited the “Handel
Variations” as one of his favorite works.
On his manuscript he dedicated it “für
eine liebe Freundin” (for a dear lady
friend)—meaning Clara Schumann,
who played from that manuscript at its
premiere.

Brahms drew the theme from
Handel’s Keyboard Suite in B-flat major
(HWV 434). That work opens the 1733
collection that also includes the Suite in
D minor just played, and in that setting
the movement is labeled “Aria con
variazioni.” Handel wrote five variations
on the theme, but Brahms goes far, far
beyond, providing 25 variations before
culminating in a magnificent, exuberant
fugue. The variations show astonishing
variety but are knitted together by
Brahms’ reverence for the bass-line.
“In a theme for variations,” he wrote, “it
is almost always the bass that actually
has any meaning for me. ... On the given
bass, I invent something actually new,
I discover new melodies on it, I create
... ” Even Richard Wagner, no Brahms
aficionado, allowed of this piece, “One
sees what still may be done in the old
forms when someone comes along who
knows how to use them.”

Sonata for Two Pianos in F minor, Op. 34b (1862-64)

One of the essential masterworks
of chamber music, Johannes Brahms’
Piano Quintet (Op. 34)—for two violins,
viola, cello, and piano—is frequently
programmed. The work is encountered
less often in the parallel setting he
created, the Sonata for Two Pianos,
Op. 34b. When he embarked this
work, in 1862, he envisioned it as a
quintet for two violins, viola, and two
cellos. Joseph Joachim, the violinist,
voiced reservations about the piece’s
effectiveness as string music; and when
a revision failed to convince, Brahms
started over with a completely new
texture in mind.

In 1863 the String Quintet slowly
re-emerged as a vast piano duet, which
Brahms premiered in Vienna in April
1864, with Carl Tausig at the other piano.
Ironically, some critics now complained
that the work lacked the warmth
that string instruments would have
provided—the opposite of Joachim’s
objection. Brahms, however, stood by
his two-piano setting. He burned the
original string-quintet version but had
the piano duet published. That was
not the end of the story. He went on to
transform the piece into his much-loved
Piano Quintet, incorporating the most
idiomatic aspects of both versions.

The British pianist Florence May, a
Brahms pupil, recounted how Brahms
and Clara Schumann performed the
piece for Princess Anna of Hesse, to
whom Brahms asked to dedicate it. “On
its publication the following year in its
final form—a quintet for pianoforte and
strings—Her Royal Highness’s name
appeared on the title page. The Princess
acknowledged the compliment of the
dedication by presenting Brahms with
one of her treasures—the autograph
score of Mozart’s G minor Symphony.
It passed after his death, as part of
his library, into the possession of the
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna.”