A Great Work
Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn is one of the greatest works of its kind, showing a sense of beauty and proportion and an ingenuity of treatment that remain as fresh and expressive today as when it was first performed in 1873. The climax of the work is the finale, which is a magnificent passacaglia, the ground or repeated bass of which is derived from the opening Haydn theme (the ' Chorale St. Antonii ').
' Death and Transfiguration'
Strauss's ' Death and Transfiguration ' is divided into four sections: (1) the sick man lies in his bed and dreams of ' childhood's golden day ' ; (2) then comes a fierce, delirious fight with Death. Once again there follows stillness ; (3) the dying man reviews all' his past life. At length there comes a briefer, fiercer struggle, in which Death strikes its final blow ; (4) the stillness of death is succeeded by the Transfiguration.