Caprice No 24 of Paganini

[j_menz]

Liszt wrote a set of Variations on this, as did (at greater length) Brahms. Rachmaninoff added an orchestra to his set and called it a Rhapsody.

For those who haven't heard the original...

(There's also a Heifitz one on YT which I'd have posted instead bar that it includes Bobby Schumann's rather lacklustre and totally pointless piano accompaniment.)

Apart from the obvious ones above, of late it seems to have also inspired others.  The ones I have are:

Trgve Madsen - Variations on a Paganini Theme

(no vid available, apparently)

Robert Muczynski - Desperate Measures

Simon Proctor - Paganini Metamorphosis

No vid, but sound available here: https://www.simonproctor.info/Samples.html

Sam Raphling - Variations on a Paganini Theme

(No vid or audio)

Alexander Rosenblatt - Variations on a Theme of Paganini

Fazil Say - Paganini Jazz

So... send me broke and point me at the rest of 'em.

[pianoman1349]

There's also the Lutoslawski set of variations for two pianos or piano and orchestra.

[j_menz]

There's also the Lutoslawski set of variations for two pianos or piano and orchestra.

Thanks.  I haven't had much to do with Witold, but what I have done has shown me a better composer than his strictly  pedagogical reputation suggests.

[visitor]

Andrew Lloyd Weber is a better composer of instrumental music than his broadway reputation credits him for.  He wrote a fantastic set of these with a very unique and dare I say inspired ( and successful)
Rock and roll meets classical feel which I think is very appropriate as Paganini was pretty much a rock Star.  I think they are an important and substantial addition to the lot. I bought these about a year and a half ago w the goal of eventually working through and recording the set of them all as part of my long term project to get unrecorded or seldom heard performances out there on to the interwebs as I do not believe these have an extant recording for solo piano.  Definitely enough there to keep dedicated chaps and chappetes busy.  

Score is out of print and definitely copyright protected but if you dig around you will ind a new old stock or decent used copy for not that much. Kick over rocks I'm the Hal Leonard sandbox if you need some clues

Theme + 23 variations :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_(Andrew_Lloyd_Webber_album)

You will find the audio of the original incarnation that inspired the piano version , here the first bit w some of the others out on YouTube

64 pages of groovy goodness

Ie

[visitor]

shout out to my boy Ivan. Out of print but out and about on the interwebs, another that is out of print, if you find these in hard copy, do tell how in the heck  you found it as I have been looking for print of his work for ever, I only have this great little piano concerto No 3 (two new old stock copies one for each piano), but no solo work as of yet....

unique since it is a set of variations based on a variation from a set of variations lol

description attached from pianists guide to repertoire.

bonus attached

[cabbynum]

I had read this when you posted it and even then was shocked that this video was not included... I am even more shocked its still not up here... come on Holygideons (probably butchered that) you sent me the damn link!


alright here is the same audio twice one with sheet music and one with video

(I always get invalid youtube link, lets hope it works this time...


video

[goldentone]

Andrew Lloyd Weber is a better composer of instrumental music than his broadway reputation credits him for.  He wrote a fantastic set of these with a very unique and dare I say inspired ( and successful)
Rock and roll meets classical feel which I think is very appropriate as Paganini was pretty much a rock Star.  I think they are an important and substantial addition to the lot. I bought these about a year and a half ago w the goal of eventually working through and recording the set of them all as part of my long term project to get unrecorded or seldom heard performances out there on to the interwebs as I do not believe these have an extant recording for solo piano.  Definitely enough there to keep dedicated chaps and chappetes busy.  

All these variations on variations makes one dizzy with what could be made from them.  I listened to a bit of Weber's Variations.  They're too mysterious for my period ears.  I'm a purist here, as I imagine most of us are, liking to keep periods in their proper places.  Does your spouse like this hybrid music--if you're married, that is.  You seem to be priming the trail for a supernova of anachronisms in the marketplace.  Or maybe some of these bloom once and awhile out and about from creative necessities. On the stage, chaps and chappettes can always switch period clothes and swap parts along the travels.

[j_menz]

Andrew Lloyd Weber

This was originally a work for Cello and piano he wrote after losing a bet to his brother (Julian, the cellist). The solo piano version isn't, I think, his own reduction.

if you need some clues

Hahah. Cheeky!

[j_menz]

shout out to my boy Ivan [Jirko for those who may have missed it]. ...unique since it is a set of variations based on a variation from a set of variations lol

Great find!

Ixnay on the Ardcopyhay, though.

I see Percy Grainger did a concert arrangement of one of the other Brahms variations (12), but not a set of variations on it.

[j_menz]

I had read this when you posted it and even then was shocked that this video was not included...

I actually managed to not know MAH had written this. 

[stoudemirestat]

It should be said that Liszt did not in fact write variations on the piece, but rather a piano transcription: the original was a theme and variations. All of his Paganini Etudes are transcriptions. Compare the two: