Variations on a Theme of Corelli in the style of Tartini (c 1910)

Among Fritz Kreisler’s many accomplishments, his seductive violin playing chief amongst them, was his skill in the art of pastiche. For as long as 25 years he was able to conceal the fact that music he claimed to have edited from a collection of “classical manuscripts” was in fact his own work and had little or nothing to do with the composers, like Couperin and Pugnani, whose names he attached to the pieces. But that was in an age less historically aware than our own. No expert today would believe for more than a couple of minutes in the attribution of Tartini to the Variations on a Theme of Corelli. The theme is genuine Corelli but the variations, entertaining though they are, are clearly the work of a composer born in the 19th century.