Variations on a Theme of Paganini

35, is a work for piano composed in 1863 by Johannes Brahms, based on the Caprice No.

"[2] Clara Schumann called it Hexenvariationen (Witch's Variations) because of its difficulty.

[3] Dubal quotes critic James Huneker: “Brahms and Paganini!

These diabolical variations, the last word in the technical literature of the piano, are also vast spiritual problems.

To play them requires fingers of steel, a heart of burning lava and the courage of a lion.