Tema con variazioni

Jean Françaix’s Tema con variazioni is one of a long and honourable, and still largely unexploited, repertoire of instrumental pieces written by distinguished composers of the day - Fauré, Debussy, Dutilleux prominent among them - as competition pieces for the Paris Conservatoire. An outstandingly attractive example, written in 1974 and drawing on a variety of classical and popular styles, the Tema con variazioni includes an extensive and particularly testing cadenza between the waltz-time fifth variation and the irresistibly uncouth Prestissimo finale.

Jean Françaix’s Tema con variazioni is one of a long and honourable, and still largely unexploited, repertoire of instrumental pieces written by distinguished French composers of the day – Fauré, Debussy, Dutilleux prominent among them – as competition pieces for final-year students at the Paris Conservatoire. This outstandingly attractive example of its kind was written in 1974 by one of the most prolific and most entertaining musicians working in Paris in the second half of the 20th century. “Desperately tonal,” as the composer unapologetically described it, and drawing on an extensive variety of classical and popular styles, the Tema con variazioni includes an extensive and particularly testing cadenza between the waltz-time fifth variation and the irresistibly uncouth Prestissimo finale.