Ed Zubrow:

>It would seem to follow that what Bruce is suggesting is that even using
>the second approach, Brahms's ideas are too varied and complex to be fully
>expressed using hammers and strings.

Not having heard the orchestration, I cannot say whether it allows
one to hear the work better, but I will express my dissent with what is
getting to be a trend and say that the Brahms Handel Variations (as played
by Fleischer or Istomen) have always struck me as just about the most
perfectly pianistic work I know.  I have never had a problem with the
clarity of the fugue.

The piano work that does strike me as greatly strengthened by
orchestration is the Weingartner orchestration of Beethoven's
Hammerklavier.  Except for Rudolf Serkin's I have not heard a piano
version that satisfies me (certainly not Schnabel's, that so many swear
by).  The orchestra adds power to the outbursts, and continuity in the
legato passages; The adagio works especially well for me.

Jim Tobin