After the Paganini Variations Op. 35 Brahms quit producing large-scale piano works â indeed he quit writing for the piano altogether for about 13 years.
The Klavierstücke Op. 76 (1878) is the first set of miniature masterpieces that were to comprise the remaining output of Brahms´s solo piano music.
These pieces are all imbued with his now fully matured technique of "developing variation" in which the entire musical fabric is spun from germinal motives, often a single one for an entire piece.
The small size and strict organizational principles of these works in no way lessens either their musical complexity or their emotional warmth.
