![\"Corelli](\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/de\/files\/2013\/12\/Corelli.jpg\")
<\/a>Corelli "La Follia" theme<\/p><\/div>\n
However, unlike what Rachmaninoff assumed, the Italian composer did not compose this theme. \u2018Corelli Variations\u2019, the popular title entrenched today for Rachmaninoff\u2019s Opus 42, is in this respect not entirely correct. A wildly noisy Portuguese dance called \u2018Folia\u2019 can already be established at the end of the 15th century. Around the same time there also developed a harmonic-melodic formula of the same name that, however, can no longer be linked to the wildness of the dance. It was very much in vogue in subsequent centuries, and \u2013 undergoing constant modification \u2013 was especially utilised as a theme for sets of variations. An impression of this popularity is conveyed by the fantastic data collection of the website \u2018la folia, a musical cathedral\u2019<\/a>, there especially the chronological list of the variations known to have been set to music<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps Fritz Kreisler \u2013 Rachmaninoff\u2019s friend, duo-partner and dedicatee of Opus 42 \u2013 made Corelli\u2019s \u2018Folia\u2019 composition known to the composer. In his publication series Klassische Manuskripte f\u00fcr Violine und Klavier<\/em> [\u2018Classical Manuscripts for Violin and Piano\u2019], Kreisler had published in 1927 his own edition of variations from Corelli\u2019s Opus 5<\/a> .<\/p>\n It is also conceivable that Rachmaninoff came into contact with the \u2018Folia\u2019 by way of the popular French title \u2018Folies d\u2019Espagne\u2019. Franz Liszt had used the musical material under this name in his Rhapsodie espagnole<\/a><\/em> \u2013 a work that Rachmaninoff recorded in 1923\/24 (though the recording was never released for publication):<\/p>\n Liszt Rhapsodie espagnole<\/p><\/div>\n Rachmaninoff first learned that the theme did not come from Corelli through a concert review of his recital in Carnegie Hall on 7 November 1931. As a result he was forced to change the originally-planned title, \u2018Variations pour piano sur un th\u00e8me de Corelli \u201cLa Folia\u201d\u2019, notated on the extant engraver\u2019s model. In the first edition published about the turn of the year 1931\/32, the jacket and inside title simply read \u2018Variations\u2019. Nonetheless: Corelli was and remained the inspirational source, and the caption title of Op. 42 certainly deliberately reconnects the work to Rachmaninoff\u2019s actual theme source:<\/p>\n Rachmaninoff Corelli Variations<\/p><\/div>\n A recommendation to conclude, Vladimir Ashkenazy in this impressive recording!<\/a> Is anyone after that still interested in whether the work is now called Corelli Variations or La Folia Variations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In May and June 1931 Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his famous … Continue reading <\/a><\/a>