I'm in the group "Brahms is like Australia: we all know it's there, and there must be some great things to see and do there, but... well... it's Australia". I'm not an expert on symphonic music (I'm basically a pianist) but this theme and treatment brought Dvorzak's 9th finale in mind, I'm not sure why
The variations are wonderfull though! Great job, and I pressume you did that in a very short time frame.
Bravo!