The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin, which has inspired works by several composers.

• Introduction: Allegro vivace – Variation I (Precedente)
• Tema: L’istesso tempo
• Variation II: L’istesso tempo
• Variation III: L’istesso tempo
• Variation IV: Più vivo
• Variation V: Tempo precedente
• Variation VI: L’istesso tempo
• Variation VII: Meno mosso, a tempo moderato
• Variation VIII: Tempo I
• Variation IX: L’istesso tempo
• Variation X: L’istesso tempo
• Variation XI: Moderato
• Variation XII: Tempo di minuetto
• Variation XIII: Allegro
• Variation XIV: L’istesso tempo
• Variation XV: Più vivo scherzando
• Variation XVI: Allegretto
• Variation XVII: Allegretto
• Variation XVIII: Andante cantabile
• Variation XIX: A tempo vivace
• Variation XX: Un poco più vivo
• Variation XXI: Un poco più vivo
• Variation XXII: Un poco più vivo (Alla breve)
• Variation XXIII: L’istesso tempo
• Variation XXIV: A tempo un poco meno mosso

Although Rachmaninoff’s work is performed in one stretch without breaks, it can be divided into three sections, corresponding to the three movements of a concerto: up to variation 11 corresponds to the first movement, variations 12 to 18 are the equivalent of a slow movement, and the remaining variations make a finale.

After a brief introduction, the first variation is played before the theme. Paganini’s theme is stated on strings with the piano picking out salient notes, after the first variation. Rachmaninoff likely got the idea of having a variation before the theme from the finale of Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. Variations II to VI recombine elements of the theme. The pauses and rhetorical flourishes for the piano in variation VII herald a change of tempo and tone. The piano next gravely intones the Dies Irae, the “day of wrath” plainchant from the medieval Mass of the Dead, while the orchestra accompanies with a slower version of the opening motif of the Paganini theme. The piece is one of several by Rachmaninoff to quote the Dies Irae plainchant melody.

The slow eighteenth variation is by far the most well-known, and it is often included on classical music compilations without the rest of the work. It is based on an inversion of the melody of Paganini’s theme. In other words, the A minor Paganini theme is played “upside down” in D flat major. Rachmaninoff himself recognized the appeal of this variation, saying “This one, is for my agent.”

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Mikhail Pletnev: piano

Claudio Abbado: conductor

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Arthur Rubinstein: piano

Alfred Wallenstein: conductor

part 1/2

part 2/2

Ayako Uehara: piano

part 1/3

part 2/3

part 3/3

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op. 43 in A minor sheet music

By Syuzanna Rudanovskaya

Bolero Op. 19 in C major/A major sheet music

By Leonard Pennario

Waltz Op. posth. 70 No. 3 in D flat major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. posth. 70 No. 2 in F minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. posth. 70 No. 1 in G flat major sheet music

The waltz was originally written as a farewell piece to Marie Wodzińska, to whom Chopin was once engaged. This autographed copy, first presented in September 1835, is now in the National Library in Warsaw, Poland. Another autographed version of the piece can be found at the Paris Conservatoire, but is considered to be a less refined version. A third is presented as the posthumous edition of Jules Fontana, but has not been substantiated by any known autograph.

The waltz is in A flat major, with a time signature of 3/4. The tempo is marked at “Tempo di Valse,” or a waltz tempo. The beginning theme is melancholic and nostalgic, and reaches a small high point with a fast flourish. The second part is marked “sempre delicatissimo,” or “con anima” in other versions. It is somewhat more cheerful that the previous theme, but soon give way to the same first theme. After a second rendition of the first theme is a third theme, the most playful theme. It leads to another theme with a series of ascending double-stops. This fourth theme is marked “poco a poco crescendo,” with other editions adding “ed appassionato.” This leads back to the third, playful theme, and returns back to the beginning with a Da Capo al Fine.

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By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. 69 No. 1 in A flat major sheet music

Waltz Op. 64 No. 3 in A flat major sheet music

• Theme A tempo giusto chordal with a walking pace feel;
• Theme B più mosso (faster) – theme stated in running eighth notes, with all harmony in the left hand.
• Theme C più lento (slower) – a sostenuto in the tonic major (D-flat major, enharmonic equivalent to C-sharp major). Besides the slower general pace, the melody is in quarter notes except for a few flourishes in eighth notes, giving this section the quality of an interlude before the dramatic restatement of Theme B

The overall layout of the piece is A B C B A B. The piece ends with a fade-out rather than the strident chords of his first Grande Valse Brillante (Op 18).

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By Evgeny Kissin

By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C sharp minor sheet music

The piece is given the tempo marking “Molto vivace”. He wrote it in 1847 and published it in Leipzig the same year, as the first of the opus 64 Trois Valses, dedicating it to “To Mme. la Comtesse Delphine Potocka”. Since the second waltz is in the key of C-sharp minor, the “Minute” waltz contrasts by being in the enharmonic parallel major key (D-flat major).

Despite its nickname, a typical performance of the work will last between one and a half and two and a half minutes; this is because Chopin’s publisher, who coined the nickname, intended the “minute” to mean “small”. The waltz, though considered by many to be brilliant, is not grand or long. It is more playful than many of the other waltzes. Camille Bourniquel, one of Chopin’s biographers, reminds the reader that Chopin, with this waltz, was trying to depict a dog chasing its tail; indeed, Chopin originally named the piece “Petit chien” (Little Dog).

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By Cyprien Katsaris

By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. 64 No. in D-flat major “Minute Waltz” sheet music

By Marek Drewnowski

By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. 42 in A flat major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Grande Waltz brillante Op. 34 No. 3 in F major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Grande Waltz brillante Op. 34 No. 2 in A minor sheet music

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By Evgeny Kissin

By Julio Garci­a Casas

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Lang Lang

Waltz brillante Op. 34 No. 1 in A-flat major sheet music

Mazurka A minor Op. posth. ‘a Emile Gaillard’ Brown 140 sheet music

Mazurka in A minor Op. posth. ‘Notre temps’ Brown 134 sheet music

By Evgeny Kissin

Mazurka Op. 68 No. 4 in F minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 68 No. 3 in F major sheet music

By Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mazurka Op. 68 No. 2 in A minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 68 No. 1 in C major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Julio Garci­a Casas

Mazurka Op. 67 No. 4 in A minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 67 No. 3 in C major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 67 No. 2 in G minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 67 No. 1 in G major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 63 No. 3 in C sharp minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 63 No. 2 in F minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 63 No. 1 in B major sheet music

By Vladimir Horowitz

Mazurka Op. 59 No. 3 in F sharp minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 59 No. 2 in A flat major sheet music

By Ingolf Wunder

Mazurka Op. 59 No. 1 in A minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 56 No. 3 in C minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 56 No. 2 in C major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 56 No. 1 in B major sheet music

By Stanislav Bunin

By Evgeny Kissin

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Maurizio Pollini

Mazurka Op. 50 No. 3 in C sharp minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 50 No. 2 in A flat major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 50 No. 1 in G major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 41 No. 4 A flat major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 41 No. 3 in B major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Vladimir Sofronitsky

Mazurka Op. 41 No. 2 in E minor sheet music

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Mazurka Op. 41 No. 1 in C sharp minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 33 No. 4 in B minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 33 No. 3 in C major sheet music

By Vladimir Horowitz

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 33 No. 2 in D major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

Mazurka Op. 33 No. 1 in G sharp minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 30 No. 4 in C sharp minor sheet music

By Vladimir Horowitz

Mazurka Op. 30 No. 3 D flat major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 30 No. 2 in B minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 30 No. 1 in C minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 24 No. 4 in B flat minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 24 No. 3 in A flat major sheet music

By Martha Argerich

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 24 No. 2 in C major sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 24 No. 1 in G minor sheet music

By Michael Glenn Williams

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 17 No. 4 in A minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 17 No. 3 in A flat major sheet music

By Hsia-Jung Chang

Mazurka Op. 17 No. 2 in E minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 17 No. 1 in B flat major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 7 No. 5 in C major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 7 No. 4 in A flat major sheet music

By Vadim Chaimovich

By Arthur Rubinstein

Mazurka Op. 7 No. 3 in F minor sheet music

By Roberto Poli

Mazurka Op. 7 No. 2 in A minor sheet music

By Kyung Lee

Mazurka Op. 7 No. 1 in B flat major sheet music

Mazurka Op. 6 No. 4 E flat minor sheet music

Mazurka Op. 6 No. 3 in E major

Op. 6 No. 2 in C sharp minor sheet music

Polonaise Op. 40 No. 2 C minor sheet music

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By Tzvi Erez

By Arthur Rubinstein

Polonaise Op. 40 No. 1 A major sheet music

Polonaise Op. 26 No. 2 E flat minor sheet music