Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 08/10/2005, uploaded on 02/11/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Variations on a Theme of Corelli in 1931 while he vacationed in Switzerland. It was among his final creations for the piano and followed only by the popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Interestingly, it is the only solo piano work he composed outside of his native Russia. The theme of the work, though attributed to Corelli, is in fact La Folía, whose origins, at least in printed music, go back to at least the mid-17^th century and some fifty years before Corelli’s use of it in his Sonata for violin, violone, and harpsichord. It is essentially a chord progression in D minor with a few passing bars in the relative major, but it has over time taken on a distinctive melodic attribute as well. La Folía has captivated many composers’ imaginations, from the Baroque masters, Scarlatti, Handel and Bach, to a passing reference in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and its appearance in Franz Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole.

Written in his drier, less Romantic style, Rachmaninoff’s Variations begins with a stately announcement of La Folía with a clarity that seems almost alien to the composer’s typically complex structures. Quite imaginatively, the twenty variations that follow are organized in a manner that almost resembles a full-scale sonata. The first thirteen encapsulate what might be considered a sonata’s first movement, traversing a variety of moods and establishing the argument of the work. An ornamental and cadenza-like “Interlude,” loosely based on the theme, then follows before proceeding to the next variations. Shifting to the key of D-flat major and thereby emphasizing the opening semitonal movement of the theme itself, the following two variations together form a sort of central slow movement and present La Folía in sweetly lyrical tones. Finally, the remaining five variations form the work’s finale, returning abruptly to the tonic key and building the theme through increasing energetic and vigorous treatments. However, it is with an air of solemnity and mystery that the work fades from the fortissimo of the final variation to close softly in the key of D minor.        Joseph DuBose

This piece was recorded during my third doctoral recital at IU.  Nikolai CHoubine