Variations on a Melancholy Theme Digital MP3 Album

Brad Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme features the pianist/composer and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which commissioned this orchestral version of the work—a theme and eleven variations plus a cadenza and postlude. The album also includes an encore, “Variations ‘X’ and ‘Y.'"" ""I imagine it as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues,"" Mehldau says of the piece, which combines the classical form with jazz harmonies. ""While the theme evokes melancholy, I let it be used as a springboard for other happy, wild, violent, and reckless emotions as the variations progress.""