Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Born in late 19th-century Russia, Rachmaninoff was one of the last great Romantic composers. An accomplished composer, pianist and conductor, he was born into a musical family and began piano lessons at age 4. After graduating from conservatory, he became well known for his piano works and symphonic compositions, and made his conducting debut in 1897. He left Russia in 1917 after the Russian Revolution, and eventually made his way to the United States, where he focused on a career as a pianist. In the 1930s he lived for a time in Switzerland, where he composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934. The Rhapsody quickly became a concert staple and is today one of his best-known works.

Although titled a “Rhapsody”, this work is actually a set of variations for solo piano and orchestra. It is based on a theme composed by Niccolò Paganini, the great 19th-century Italian violin virtuoso, in his 24th Caprice for solo violin. The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini consists of 24 separate, highly diverse variations, each based on Paganini’s original theme, with close collaboration between the soloist and orchestra. For the solo pianist, the Rhapsody is an extraordinary tour-de-force, with technical demands intermixed with delicate passagework, cadenzas and ultimate Romantic lyricism.

The work can be divided into several broad sections: an opening fast section (Introduction and Variations I-V); a more free-form “rhapsodic” section (Variations VI-XI); a minuet and scherzando section (Variations XII-XV); a slow section, including the emotional heart of the work (Variations XVI-XVIII); and a rousing finale (Variations XIX-XXIV).

Unconventionally, it does not open with the theme itself, but with a bare harmonic skeleton; the theme itself appears in Variation II, appropriately introduced by the violins. In Variation VII, Rachmaninoff introduces a notable counter-theme based on the Dies Irae, a medieval Latin hymn referring to Judgment Day, and a tune with which Rachmaninoff had a life-long fascination. Probably the best known part of the Rhapsody is Variation XVIII, with its lush romantic theme played first by the solo pianist, and taken up in turn by the orchestra. The last section of the Rhapsody is a driving accelerando and ends, after a forceful reprise of the Dies Irae, with a witty pianistic flourish.