Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini

[Le-ackt]

A quite famous piece from Rachmaninoff
Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
is such a beautiful piece , and I wonder which theme from Paganini's work did he base on .
does anyone know ?

[davy10tunes]

Le ackt, I think it is caprice No.24 Op.1

David

[rachfan]

Le-ackt is close.  The theme is from the last of the 24 Caprices for solo violin.

[Le-ackt]

I m a Paganini fans indeed and also a Violin player , But seems ..... there's nothing from no24 caprice really match the Melodic structure of The theme of Rhapsody .
Maybe I arnt listening careful enough to extract the theme . I have not yet found all Caprice recordings but the Most Famous caprice like No.1 No.5 No.24 doesnt seems match . Maybe Rach has alter the Keys scale ? Duno
I then start listening Paganini's Violin Concerto. Still , Maybe I m a lousy listener thou ~

[rachfan]

Hi le-ackt,

I just checked a few CD liners and a concerto repertoire guide, and all point to Caprice No. 24.  That theme has to be there in the form that Rachmaninoff announces it  before the variations.  I don't have the violin score here (being a pianist), so cannot direct you further. But it's supposed to be the true source for the material.

[davy10tunes]

Hi Le-ackt
Maybe I can clear up this problem for you.Rachmaninoff does something a bit unusual in his variations.Instead of announcing the theme straight away there is first an introduction (bars 1 to 9) then the first variation (bars 10 to 33) then the theme is introduced for the first time at bar 34, which is deffinately the 24th caprice.
hope this has helped.

David

[rachfan]

My thanks too, David.   Although I have the Rachmaninoff score here, I'm not familiar with Paganini's Caprice No. 24, so could not do the analysis in this case like you to tie the two together.  Good job!

David

[pskim]

Listen to the Liszt-Paganini etudes.  He is pretty faithful to the original violin variations, except more flourished for the piano.

[rachfan]

Thanks for the tip, pskim, I wish I had thought of that myself! I give it a listen.

[Le-ackt]

Ya, I think Paganini is among an important influence on Liszt .

[e60m5]

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is definitely based on the 24th Caprice in A Minor.

The I-V-I-V... progression is stuck to throughout each of the variations. It may not be obvious upon first hearing the piece, but having learnt and performed this concerto/rhapsody, I can assure you that everything harmonically pertains to the 24th Caprice's theme.

[amee]

In variations 7, 10, and 24 he quotes the theme Dies Irae I think.

[frederic]

Yes. Actually the actual paganini caprice is based on Dies Irae.

[amee]

Rachmaninoff was surprised at the great success of this work, and once said, "It somehow looks suspicious that the Rhapsody has had such an immediate success with everybody".

[Lebenssturme]

Le ackt
Many people said yet that the theme on paganini rhapsody is based on the last caprice of paganini! And it is obvious when we listen to it...
Then, it is obvious that in these cases, the theme became totally transformed that maybe the paganini's theme become rachmaninov's theme. The inversus theme is present at the 18th variation; there are some marks from Dies irae on some variations...etc etc
Here 'X' become 'Y'...

[iumonito]

Yes. Actually the actual paganini caprice is based on Dies Irae.

I think you are making this up.  Explain the connection or cite a source, please.