Variations concertantes Op.17 (1829)

Like the Sonata in B flat, the Variations concertantes were written for the composer’s brother Paul, but nine years earlier and in not such a serious frame of mind. Even so, although variation form at the time tended to be associated more with froth than with substance, it is a work lacking in neither intellectual nor emotional involvement. At the same time, as the title suggests, the virtuoso element applies to the piano as much as to the cello. The pattern established by the opening statement of the theme in D major, where the two instruments share the melodic interest, is reflected in most of the following eight variations.

While the cello has the theme to itself in the first variation, it is restricted to the occasional phrase in the second, and while it has the more    flamboyant part in the (Più vivace) third variation, it seems to be surprised by the bravura vehemence of the piano in the (Allegro con fuoco) fourth. The fifth neatly combines staccato keyboard articulation with cello pizzicato and the sixth adds gently bowed legato colouring to the melody on the piano. After the most passionate of the variations, the (Presto ed agitato) seventh in D minor, the last returns to the major and the opening tempo not, as it first seems, for a tame reminder of the original theme but for an extended and dramatically scored coda.