Franz Schubert - 13 Variations on a Theme of Hüttenbrenner, (Audio + Score)

Pf: Sviatoslav Richter Theme and variations form was never one of Franz Schubert’s special favorites (as it was one of, say, Beethoven’s or Johannes Brahms’), but when called to compose such music he usually did so with considerable aplomb. The variations on the “Death and the Maiden“ melody contained in the second movement of the String Quartet in D minor, D. 810 popularly known by that same title are justly famous, and, though less famous, the early Symphony No. 2 is graced with a set of variations that might be the envy of any composer, let alone a teenage one. It may be that Schubert’s general avoidance of variation-form pieces grew partly from the fact that, whereas Beethoven or Mozart were blessed with prodigious skills at the keyboard and could toss off variations at the drop of a hat, Schubert was a pianist of only average capability. Of course, Schubert could and did produce absolutely stunning music for solo piano, but probably no form is influenced and shaped by improvisation so much as variation form. As a result, variations for piano are few and far between in Schubert’s output. Among these rare essays are the 13 Variations on a Theme by Anselm Hüttenbrenner for piano, D. 576 that Schubert put together in August 1817. Hüttenbrenner, an Austrian composer of some stature at the time, was a friend of Schubert’s and a fellow pupil of Salieri. Schubert took the A minor theme for these 13 variations from his friend’s String Quartet No. 1; Hüttenbrenner’s theme in turn shows certain similarities of texture, shape, and especially rhythm (almost exclusively dactylic -- long/short/short) to the A minor second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, and it is probably safe to say the Hüttenbrenner’s imitation of Beethoven -- another of his musician friends -- was quite intentional. The tune is in two eight-bar halves, each repeated. Schubert’s Variations on this unassuming theme cover most of the traditional keyboard variation ground -- elaborate figuration, alterations of texture and rhythm, and hastening of pace, all while maintaining the same basic melodic contours and the essentials of the theme’s harmony -- and also some freer territory, especially in a couple of the A major variations (the major-mode variations are Nos. 5, 9, and 13; No. 9 is particularly unshackled by the theme’s original tonal plan). Schubert even provides one variation that doesn’t begin in the key of A. This expressive and peculiar variation, No. 6, begins in F sharp minor but then, during the second half, moves back to the A major of the previous variation via some intriguing chromaticism. The last variation of the set, No. 13, like so many variation-finales, is an expanded and wholly rebuilt version of the original subject. Here, fittingly enough, Schubert takes the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony as the rhythmic model. These 80-or-so bars of lightning-quick dotted figures are really a handful of variations in one; the first is in A major, with the repeats written out an octave higher, while the second starts off as if to give a new variation in A minor but breaks apart to ponder C major, by way of its dominant, for a full thirty bars. Surely after all this G pedal hullabaloo Schubert must satisfy our craving for a real resolution to C! But no, delighting as always in striking and sudden tonal juxtapositions, he instead uses two pregnant grand pauses to shake his way back down to A, and one final burst of pianistic gusto -- a declamation that would sound entirely at home in Beethoven’s Seventh -- decrees the end of the proceedings. (AllMusic)