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Introduction and Theme with Variations for clarinet and orchestra has now found a fixed place in the clarinet repertoire. The opera was composed in Naples around 1819 and - like the previous Andante and Tema with variations in C - is dedicated to the clarinetist and student of Rossini, Alessandro Abate. Abate was a clarinet professor in Naples and also worked as the first clarinetist at the Teatro La Munizione in Messina from 1815 to 1816. Unfortunately, the exact date of the first performance and other circumstances related to the history of the composition can no longer be determined with certainty, but a letter from violinist Ferdinando Giorgetti to the composer, dated 29 March 1852, tells us that the variations were “composed with real modesty only for pleasure and to fulfill the wish of an old friend.”
The enduring popularity of the composition is perhaps also due to the fact that Rossini drew on two extremely popular opera themes from his Neapolitan period: the beautiful theme of the variation comes from the melodrama The Woman by the Lake (first act, cavatina “Oh How Many Tears”), while the theme of the introduction comes from the aria “My Lost Peace” of the second act of the opera Moses in Egypt. This composition in Italian belcanto style is striking for the refreshing alternation of the instrument's lyrical qualities with the lightness and virtuosic joy of the performance. A number of surviving parts of the work can now be found at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and includes the individual printed parts for the orchestral instruments and the solo clarinet. This is the main source for this edition. However, a piano reduction always published by Breitkopf & Härtel under plate number 3978 has not survived.
This edition reproduces the musical text of the first edition according to the current recording rules. Obvious printing errors, dynamics and patently missing phrasing have been tacitly corrected or added by the publisher, as well as some accidental ones where it seemed appropriate. Some variation steps in the individual parts of the source were problematic due to the excess of supports. These steps have also been carefully corrected and an optimized and unambiguous repetition structure has been created.
The curator's arrangement for clarinet and string orchestra is a further enrichment of this edition.
Introduction and Theme with Variations for clarinet and orchestra has now found a fixed place in the clarinet repertoire. The opera was composed in Naples around 1819 and - like the previous Andante and Tema with variations in C - is dedicated to the clarinetist and student of Rossini, Alessandro Abate. Abate was a clarinet professor in Naples and also worked as the first clarinetist at the Teatro La Munizione in Messina from 1815 to 1816. Unfortunately, the exact date of the first performance and other circumstances related to the history of the composition can no longer be determined with certainty, but a letter from violinist Ferdinando Giorgetti to the composer, dated 29 March 1852, tells us that the variations were “composed with real modesty only for pleasure and to fulfill the wish of an old friend.”
The enduring popularity of the composition is perhaps also due to the fact that Rossini drew on two extremely popular opera themes from his Neapolitan period: the beautiful theme of the variation comes from the melodrama The Woman by the Lake (first act, cavatina “Oh How Many Tears”), while the theme of the introduction comes from the aria “My Lost Peace” of the second act of the opera Moses in Egypt. This composition in Italian belcanto style is striking for the refreshing alternation of the instrument's lyrical qualities with the lightness and virtuosic joy of the performance. A number of surviving parts of the work can now be found at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and includes the individual printed parts for the orchestral instruments and the solo clarinet. This is the main source for this edition. However, a piano reduction always published by Breitkopf & Härtel under plate number 3978 has not survived.
This edition reproduces the musical text of the first edition according to the current recording rules. Obvious printing errors, dynamics and patently missing phrasing have been tacitly corrected or added by the publisher, as well as some accidental ones where it seemed appropriate. Some variation steps in the individual parts of the source were problematic due to the excess of supports. These steps have also been carefully corrected and an optimized and unambiguous repetition structure has been created.
The curator's arrangement for clarinet and string orchestra is a further enrichment of this edition.
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