Variations Human instinct is to imitate and imitation ... - InstantEncore

Variations
Human instinct is to imitate and imitation is strongly reinforced in musicians who repeat endlessly in practice to
perfect their craft. After repetition comes boredom; however, so change something! Variation is primal and
inevitable. The earliest variation form was divisions—playing a melody, then inserting extra notes to make it
twice, three times, four times as fast, etc., changing registers for interest. By the time of Mozart, variation and
improvisation were strongly intertwined. Take a simple theme, often by a rival, and show off what could really be
done with it. By the Romantic era, novel exploitation of musical material exceeded improvisers' abilities and
composers put their creations on paper. Tonight's program illustrates how far fancy can fly out of the minds of the
greatest composers.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. May 7, 1840, Votkinsk, Russia; d. November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg)
Mozartiana, Op. 61
Sordid details of Tchaikovsky's life often seem to have some bearing on his music. His 4th Suite, dubbed
Mozartiana, is an exception. Payments from his patron Nadezhda von Meck arrived regularly in 1887 so he could
give full attention to composing. He turned to Mozart because of the centennial of Mozart's Don Giovanni. There
is no hint of anything other than a proper obeisance to a past master, albeit one informed by late Romantic
sensibilities.
“Gigue” is a faithful transcription of Mozart's buoyant late keyboard work, Gigue K 574. With this movement
and the next, by borrowing from old dance-suite forms, Tchaikovsky gives himself cover for calling his
collection of pieces a suite. “Menuet” comes from Minuet K 355/576b, a work that scholarship suggests is at
least partly by Abbe Stadler. Both movements have rich chromatic harmonies that Tchaikovsky must have found
appealing.
The “Preghiera” (literally prayer) is not purely Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, but rather Liszt's transcription that
extends it with an introduction and coda. Mozart's ethereal reverence seems overlaid with opulent earthly delight,
befitting the late 19th century.
The bulk of the suite orchestrates Mozart's ten variations, K 455, on the aria “Les hommes pieusement” (Pious
Men) from Gluck's comic opera The Unexpected Encounter. The ninth variation gives a dramatic role to the solo
violin and the tenth features two clarinet cadenzas.
Sergei Rachmaninoff (b. April 1, 1873 Semyonovo, Russia; d. March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills)
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
Many Rachmaninoff compositions are common concert fare today, but most of them were written in tsarist
Russia when he was still a relatively young man. After he fled the Bolsheviks in 1918, he settled in the United
States and remained exceedingly busy as a concert artist until the end of his life. Of the few works he wrote after
going into exile, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini stands apart.
The theme is from Paganini's Caprice in A minor, a solo violin spectacular written around 1809. So many
composers since have used its material for their own works since that its appeal must be reckoned a force of
nature. Yet Rachmaninoff in his creation upstaged Paganini and all the rest. Its 1934 premiere was an unqualified
success and it has remained hugely popular ever since.
Rachmaninoff begins not with the theme but a punchy introduction and then the first variation. This is much like
what CSO listeners heard last fall where the finale of Beethoven's Eroica symphony doesn't present its theme
until well into the movement.
The overarching form of the piece is very like many concertos. A question to ponder: Why didn't Rachmaninoff
call it a concerto? The beginning through variation 10 is like a typical concerto's opening movement, relatively

quick tempos, etc. In Variation 7 the piano plays Dies Irae, the hymn for the dead while the orchestra plays a
modification of the Paganini theme underneath. Did Rachmaninoff call his work a rhapsody because he borrowed
other material?
Variations 11-18 as a group are like a concerto's slow movement. Some of the piano writing seems rather dreamy
and rhapsodical. Variation 18 is arguably the most famous piece for piano and orchestra ever. The lush romantic
theme has been borrowed to sell every product under the sun. Yet its relation to Paganini isn't obvious because it
is his melody inverted, that is, when Paganini's goes up, Rachmaninoff's goes down and vice versa. Did
Rachmaninoff want to call it a rhapsody because it sounded so different from the source material?
The last variations 19-24 are quick again. Much bravura piano playing with some quirky rhythmic twists, jazzy
interjections from the brass, a bright Hollywood-like orchestration—now we get it! The rhapsody part looks back
less than a decade to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. A last mighty invocation of Dies Irae and the piece is over
with a nonchalant fillip.
Tennesseans may want to know that Rachmaninoff's career came to an end up the road at UT-Knoxville, February
17, 1943. A 12-foot bronzed statue titled “Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert” is on the grounds outside the World's
Fair Convention Center..
Sir Edward Elgar (b. June 2, 1857 near Worcester, England; d February 23, 1934 in Worcester)
Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra ("Enigma"), Op. 36
Everyone who has ever attended a high school graduation has heard some music by Elgar if only the measured of
paces of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. Like Sibelius whose music we heard last month, Elgar was
dismissed by musical academia for being old-fashioned when they saw the only future of music as the avant
garde. In Elgar's case, his own countrymen let him slip into obscurity—so much so that his centennial observance
caused barely a ripple. The quality of his work ultimately won out. Jacqueline du Pré's masterful performances of
Elgar's Cello Concerto starting in 1962 may have been the turning point.
Part of the enigma in Elgar's creation is that each variation depicted some person in his life. With all of them now
dead, his estate has confirmed their identities. But Elgar claimed, “through and over the whole set another and
larger theme 'goes,' but is not played — so the principal Theme never appears.” That is the enigma he took with
him to his grave and that remains a topic of speculation still. Elgar needled us, “the theme is so well known that it
is extraordinary that no one has spotted it,” Every performance thus may be the one where a listener in a flash of
insight solves the enigma and takes her place in music history.
Space does not permit detailing all fourteen variations, although Elgar succeeds in giving each a distinct
character. Variation 1 (CAE) is Elgar's wife Caroline. It seems to convey abiding affection, if not much passion.
Variation 7 (Troyte) depicts a scene where Elgar and architect Arthur Troyte Griffith were caught in a
thunderstorm and made a mad dash to the house of Winifred Norbury, an easy-going friend and the subject of
Variation 8.
Variation 9 (Nimrod) is extremely popular in its own right. The title shows Elgar's mind at play. Nimrod is the
Old Testament patriarch who was “a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Hunter in German is Jaeger. The dedicatee
was Augustus Jaeger. With intense emotion Elgar reverently honors this deepest, truest friendship.
Variation 12 (BGN) offers a cello solo for his cellist friend Basil Nevinson who later inspired Elgar to write his
Cello Concerto. The finale (EDU) refers to Elgar himself, Edu being his wife's nickname for him. References
back to CAE and Nimrod for “two great influences on the life and art of the composer," Elgar said, "[are] entirely
fitting to the intention of the piece.” It is a grand ending, affirming the composer's high opinion of himself.
(c)2013 by Steven Hollingsworth, Creative Commons Public Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Contact steve@trecorde.net