With one exception, Brahms's piano variations are early works, written in the decade ending in the year of his thirtieth birthday, 1863; the remaining set is the one for two pianos on the St Antoni Theme which was composed ten years after that. The booklet essay deals with them in chronological order, but the playing order is different, doubtless so that all might be accommodated on these two generously filled discs. They begin with the proudly neoclassical set on an Air (itself followed by variations) in Handel's Lesson in B flat major for harpsichord, written for the Prince of Wales's daughters. The booklet calls Josep Colom ''one of the most solid Spanish musicians'', but he is more than that unfortunate phrase suggests, for his playing in this finely wrought work is delicate and strong by turns and the fugal finale (rather lightly pedalled) is cleanly and powerfully done. However, I do feel a need for more tonal glow and youthful buoyancy. Colom tends to linger, not least at cadences and repeat points, and the loss of momentum imperils the overall shape: one's reminded that such music must hold purposefully together if it's not to risk becoming a mere sequence of short pieces with the same key and harmonies. In this piece of 25 variations and a final fugue, I would have welcomed separate tracks or indexing—and we definitely need separate tracks for the two books of Paganini Variations, which were published separately although are commonly played in sequence today.
Brahms's Schumann Variations, Op. 9, are on a deeply romantic theme which Colom treats most solemnly, doubtless because the work was written for Clara Schumann just after her husband's mental breakdown, but thereafter he gives us variety while still maintaining the overall serious mood. He is also solemn in the D minor Variations which are Brahms's richly textured transcription of a movement from his String Sextet, Op. 18. Seriousness is again the keynote of the playing in the Original Theme and Hungarian sets of variations which together make up Op. 21, but there is a pleasing mellowness about the first of these and Colom makes something positive of the latter with its rhythmically quirky theme.
The biggest pianistic challenge here is, of course, the Paganini Variations, which works when played right through despite having two finales. Colom is often pleasantly fleet, and technically he is equal to the music, though there are two glaring wrong octaves in the arpeggio at the end of Var.13 in Book 1 (11'35''), which should have been retaken. But musically, once again, I find him apt to make slightly heavy weather of things (Vars. 4, 7 and 11 in Book 1 don't really flow, and nor does the waltzlike No. 4 in Book 2) although he makes an impressive sound in big passages. I don't, however, like his idea of playing the Theme in Book 2 very much slower than the identical notes starting Book 1—at least the notes should be the same, but in Book 2 he puts much of the right hand up an octave as well. Collectors should know that this is not the only place in this piece, and for that matter his whole programme, where he modifies the printed text.
In two of the eight works, Colom is joined by Carmen Deleito. They are sympathetic enough in their treatment of the other Schumann variation set (for piano duet, Op. 23), but I find their playing too plain to offer all the light and shade in the work, or for that matter the genial St Antoni Variations. Nor does the recording allow much soft tone: it is crisp, clear and sometimes clangorous at the top, particularly in the Paganini Variations and the two-piano work.'