Variations for Piano, Op. 27

Webern's only published work for solo piano, composed 1935-1936. Three movements in twelve-tone technique, each brief and of extraordinary economy: the total duration is approximately 6-7 minutes. The first movement is in a strict mirror-symmetry form; the second is a rapid scherzo of tiny, pointed gestures; the third is a set of canonic variations on a row. The Op. 27 Variations are among the most influential piano works of the 20th century: Stravinsky, Boulez, and Feldman all acknowledged their debt to the work's radical compression and perfectionist economy. Webern himself considered them a summation of his twelve-tone method.