Chopin, Variations on a theme by Mozart - "Là ci darem la mano"

 
" Hats off gentlemen: a genius! Listening to these variations, I imagined that unknown eyes were opening before me [...] At various moments ... I thought I could perceive Mozart's Là ci darem through a hundred linked chords... Don Juan was flying before me in his white cloak."

The words are Robert Schumann's. He wrote them in 1831 after hearing in Leipzig the variations that a young musician, whom he did not know and whose name was Chopin, had composed on Mozart's duet, Là ci darem la mano, from the first act of the opera Don Giovanni.

From then on, there were countless occasions when Robert Schumann enthusiastically praised Chopin's compositions and his ability to make prodigious sounds emerge from the piano. But the young Polish musician, only three months older than Schumann (both, 21 years), never reciprocated the enthusiasm of his German admirer. And the ardent words already transcribed seemed to him exaggerated, even for laughter:

“I received a few days ago a ten-page review from a German in Kassel who is full of enthusiasm for [the variations]. After a long-winded preface, he proceeds to analyze them bar by bar, explaining that they are not ordinary variations but a fantastic tableau. In the second variation he says that Don Giovanni runs around with Leporello; in the third he kisses Zerlina while Massetto’s rage is pictured in the left hand—and in the fifth bar of the Adagio he declares that Don Giovanni kisses Zerlina on the D-flat…I could die of laughing at this German’s imagination.”

Ah, well. Chopin was never known for patronizing his fellow musicians. And he always viewed praise with disdain. On the other hand, it must also be clearly established that he was never proud to express an opinion about his own music. It is not surprising then that so much praise seemed unconscionable to him.

The Variations

In addition to his two concertos, Chopin included the orchestra in only three of his compositions. And in these variations – the composer's first work for piano and orchestra, written at the age of 17 – the contribution of the orchestral ensemble is precarious, almost limited to providing a "refrain" between variation and variation. For the same reason, the composer will later dispense with the orchestral accompaniment by presenting the work as a piece for solo piano.

Dedicated to his friend Titus Woyciechowski, it was successfully premiered in Vienna in August 1829 with Chopin at the piano, during his first visit, from July to August of that year.

Sections:
00:00  Introduction: Largo / 04:55  Theme: Allegretto / 06:29  Variation 1 / 07:30  Variation 2 / 08:33  Variation 3 / 10:03  Variation 4 / 10:49  Variation 5 / 11:39  Adagio / 14:27  Coda: Alla polacca.

The version is by eighteen-year-old South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim, the youngest person to win a gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.