Theme & Variations introduces a new topic each week, presenting a wide range of music associated with that theme. Drawn from a millennium of Western classical music, the selections are an eclectic mix of familiar favorites and rarities. Theme and Variations is produced locally in Discover Classical's studios by host Joe Law.
This week’s program brings you music "by arrangement"--music adapted for performers other than those originally intended. You will hear music by J. S. Bach (arr. Gustav Mahler), Ludwig van Beethoven (arr. LvB himself), Luigi Boccherini (arr. Othon Vandenbroek), Franz Schubert (arr. Fritz Kreisler) and Johann Strauss II (arr. Leopold Godowsky), along with arrangements of traditional music by Max Bruch, Adolphus Hailstork and Mátyás Sieber.
Today’s program explores the partita form, with examples by J. S. Bach, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Irving Fine, Franz Krommer, Johann Pachelbel, Antonio Rosetti and William Walton.
You're invited to a ballet matinée this week, with excerpts from scores by Adolphe Adam, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, Léo Delibes, Alexandre Luigini, Matthias Strebinger and P.I. Tchaikovsky.
There’s time travel in store on this week’s program. You’ll hear music composed, premiered and/or published in1725. It’s by J. S. Bach, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, François Couperin, Jean-Baptiste Loeillet (aka Loeillet of London), Marin Marais and Antonio Vivaldi.