Theme and variations -

I have been humming it all afternoon. What is it's name please?

It is on the tip of my tongue, yet I can't retrieve it!!!


C- CDE- C- A- D---
C- B- B- C- D- G- F- E- D-
C- CDE- C- A- D- ETC

La ci darem la mano, from Mozart's Don Giovanni

If you're thinking of it in terms of theme and variations, then maybe you're thinking of Liszt's Reminiscences de Don Juan - but its the same theme

!!!

OMG, that was fast!

5 Gold Stars to you!!!

Thanks...

uh oh...though....

Now I must ask what is the piano theme and variations? Or who did it?

Liszt wrote a piano fantasy incorporating this and other themes from Mozart's opera. He writes a couple variations on this particular theme in the middle section. It's a great showpiece.

Here's a vid of it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5114809281076329669

There's one by Chopin with piano and orchestra and then there is, like 8ude said, the Don Juan by Liszt.

Beethoven also wrote variations on that melody, though its a pretty obscure work.

The Chopin Op. 2 is underplayed (as are all his pieces for piano and orchestra besides the concertos), but it was the inspiration for Schumann's famous remark, "Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!"

One of the variations is an Adagio full of melodrama, and the final one of the set is a lively and virtuosic polonaise.

Steven

You guys are fantastic!

I had been listening to a CD concert by Eric Himy earlier, with the piano virtuoso playing it, yet there were no names of pieces on the CD tape (it is legit) and wanted to send a note to him, yet, geeze, it would be so embarassing not to be able to 'name that tune'!

From the name 8ude supplied, I did find a (must edit the wrong spelling of her name) Valentina Lisitsa excerpt here that you might like to hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJaNp-qBrS0&feature=related

BTW, it doesn't surprise me now that I didn't remember the name...yikes! I can't even pronounce it! I hope it is something like it looks. ;-)

Edited for Lisitsa spelling!

I enjoy that piece a lot but I actually like the variations before the Adagio more because they are so lively, charming, and rather different from all the other works by Chopin (is it his only transcription?).

Wow, Lisitsa was great.

She was playing the 4th variation (Con bravura), which I always refer to in my mind as "Paganini" because the figuration is identical to Schumann's piece of that name in his Carnaval Op. 9.

From :37 to 1:00 is a solo piano reduction of the orchestral tutti, followed by the first part of the Adagio I mentioned previously. Now I want to hear the Alla Polacca, which normally brings the set to a very satisfying finish!

Steven

The Op. 12 variations are similarly large-scale (though for piano solo) and similarly underplayed, based on "Je vends des Scapulaires" from Ferdinand Hérold's opera Ludovic.

Chopin also co-wrote (with cellist Auguste Franchomme) a Grand Duo Concertante for piano and cello on themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable, published in 1833. (Chopin dedicated his cello sonata Op. 65, the last composition published in his lifetime, to Franchomme in 1847.)

Steven