Wow, Brahms, I liked you until... Variations on a theme of Paganini, Variations and Fugue on a theme of Handel

Brahms is a pretty cool guy.  Most pianists probably agree.  I know these are not real statistics, but I include them anyway to set the tone of the rest of this entry.  I don't want to not like these pieces.  I know they're brilliantly constructed (especially the fugue...) but... I just... can't.  There's too much going on here for me to absorb.  I understand that so many people really love these works... I understand that he was praised so much for the Handel variations.  Even so, I have this prejudice against the genre as a whole.  Sure, there are some that are fun, and these are by no means the most boring... but I get tired of the same material over and over.  I am glad that Brahms at least varied them enough to keep me interested, if not completely entertained.  Perhaps I just need a longer attention span.  Hm...