Review: MusicWebInternational
Sergei Rachmaninov
Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22
1. Theme. Largo
2. Variation 1: Moderato
3. Variation 2: Allegro
4. Variation 3:
5. Variation 4:
6. Variation 5: Meno mosso
7. Variation 6: Meno mosso
8. Variation 7: Allegro
9. Variation 8:
10. Variation 9:
11. Variation 10: Più vivo
12. Variation 11: Lento
13. Variation 12: Moderato
14. Variation 13: Largo
15. Variation 14: Moderato
16. Variation 15: Allegro scherzando
17. Variation 16: Lento
18. Variation 17: Grave
19. Variation 18: Più mosso
20. Variation 19: Allegro vivace
21. Variation 20: Presto
22. Variation 21: Andante più vivo
23. Variation 22: Maestoso
Federico Mompou
Variations sur un theme de Chopin
24. Thème. Andantino
25. Var. 1: Tranquillo e molto amabile
26. Var. 2: Gracioso
27. Var. 3: Lento [left hand alone]
28. Var. 4: Espressivo
29. Var. 5: Tempo di Mazurka
30. Var. 6: Recitativo
31. Var. 7: Allegro leggiero
32. Var. 8: Andante dolce e espressivo
33. Var. 9: Valse
34. Var. 10: Évocation, Cantabile molto espressivo
35. Var. 11: Lento dolce e legato
36. Var. 12: Galope y Epílogo
37. Lento
Ferruccio Busoni
Variations on a Prelude by Chopin, BV213a
38. Theme and Variations
Chopin Variations ©
Rachmaninov turned to variation form for three pieces near the beginning and the end of his carreer. The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini has been treasured for its scintillating lightness of touch ever since its premiere in 1934. The contemporaneous Corelli Variations of 1931 – the composer’s last solo piano work – were slower to catch on, but now stand alongside the Rhapsody as the climax of a definite ‘late style’ in Rachmaninov: spare, neoclassical, overshadowed by mortality. Meanwhile the early Variations on Chopin have yet to attain a comparable familiarity among either performers or public. Yet the density of the polyphony, the ingenuity of approaches to the theme, bears comparison with the distinguished predecessors in the field such as Brahms’s Paganini Variations and for that matter Chopin’s Variations on Mozart’s ‘Là ci darem la mano’.
In 1938 the Catalan composer Federico Mompou was living in Paris, having exciled himself at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1931, and had published no music in the interim (though Mompou’s mind was always turning over ideas). Then his friend, the cellist Gaspar Cassadó, approached him with the proposal of a creative partnership: they would write a collaborative set of callo-and-piano variations on Chopin’s Prélude Op.28 No.7. Mompou already perhaps had the melodic sjape of Op. 28 No. 7 at the back of his mind when writing a set of Tres Variaciones for solo piano in 1921; however, nothing solid came of Cassadó’s proposal. Years later, the conductor John Lanchbery orchestrated a suite of Mompou’s own pieces as Las casa de los parajos (The House of Birds), to choreography by Sir Kenneth Macmillan. After the premiere at Covent Garden in 1955, the ballet reached Granada in 1956 and Barcelona in 1957. On this latter occasion, Lanchbery asked Mompou for another suitable score, and the composer revived his Chopin project. Curiously, the ballet came to nothing – but MOmpou produced a set of 12 solo-piano variations on the Prélude, four of which (Nos. 1-3 and 5) date back to the abandoned Cassadó project.
There was never any doubt over the affinity for Chopin felt by both Mompou and Rachmaninov. The case of Busoni is different. Two years before his death in 1924, he admitted that ‘Chopin has attacted and repelled me all my life; and I have heard his music too often – prostituted, profaned, vulgarized…’ Busoni was determined to challenge the accepted wisdom of Chopin as a feminine or even effeminate composer (no matter that Chopin himself acquiesced in the idea): ‘A typical Balzac-novel figure of the 1830s: the pale, interesting, mysterious, elegant stranger in Paris’. His approach as a performer could be fortright to the point of insensitivity. According to Arthur Rubinstein, who found himself floored by Busoni’s Liszt as everyone else was, ‘his Chopin, while technically brilliant, lacked the warmth and tenderness so important in his works.’ ….
