Description
Composed in 1833, the Variations brillantes, Op.12 take an operatic melody as their theme and elaborate it with ornamental passages and rapid figuration. Written very much for the Parisian salon audience, the piece favors brilliant, crowd-pleasing effects. It offers plenty of opportunities for virtuosic display and was clearly designed with an appreciative audience in mind, with each successive variation adding to the technical demands.
Works written in theme-and-variations form, where a single melody is transformed in many different ways.
About the Composer
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Frederic Chopin was born in Poland and made his career in Paris, remaining unusual among great composers for writing almost exclusively for piano. He poured his longing for his homeland into mazurkas and polonaises, while his ballades and etudes combine poetic melody with harmonic innovation. This site includes 131 of his works, including the "Revolutionary" Etude, Op. 10, No. 12, and Ballades No. 1 and No. 4.
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