Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 02/24/2010, uploaded on 05/11/2010

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

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Variations on a theme by Corelli      Sergei Rachmaninov

Sergey Rachmaninov's Variations,Op. 42, were written in 1931 and make use of a well-known theme that the seventeenth century violinist-composer Arcangelo Corelli used as the basis for a set of variations in one of his solo violin sonatas. The melody, La folia, was among the most popular tunes of the Baroque period, and was used by numerous composers, including J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, and Vivaldi.      Anna Petrova

Rachmaninov, in his series of twenty variations on La folia, wrings out a masterly exploration of the possibilities of this simplest of original material. The work is conceived as one, with an Intermezzo, which is in fact a cadenza, before the fourteenth variation.  The final rapid set of variations lead to a gentle coda. The Variations represent a new phase in Rachmaninov's compositions, where a tendency for greater clarity of texture is coupled with considerable harmonic originality and daring.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.