Introduction, Theme and Variations

Just how much Rossini had to do with the Introduction, Theme and Variations usually attributed to him, and just when the piece was written, no one really knows. Certainly, Rossini wrote the two melodies featured in it: the Andante introduction is based on Amaltea’s aria “La pace mia smarrita” from Mosè in Egitto and the theme which inspired the variations that follow is Malcolm’s cabaletta “Oh quante lacrime” from La donna del lago. Since La donna del lago, the later of those two operas, was completed in 1819, the variations must have been written after that date - but probably not by Rossini. Although he did write a set of variations for clarinet and orchestra as a student, he was not in the habit of fashioning instrumental variations on his own opera arias and there is nothing remotely like the Introduction, Theme and Variations among his mature works. The virtuoso quality of the solo part, with its frequent leaps up to the top end of the range, suggests the hand of a composer with a special interest in clarinet technique.

Whoever wrote the piece, he (it is highly unlikely in the 1820s to have been a she) made a thoroughly professional job of it, not least in the selection of the material. “La pace mia smarrita” is no less expressive in the middle and upper registers of the clarinet than it is as a soprano aria in the opera and there is a much greater potential here for bravura decoration of the melodic line. The lively “Oh quante lacrime” lends itself not only to extrovert brilliance but also, in the fourth of the five variations, to inward rumination in the lower register - a comparatively dark-coloured episode which most effectively offsets the dazzling last variation, cadenza, and coda.

Gerald Larner ©2004