The recording 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. « I imagine it as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues, » Brad 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. »