Mendelssohn Variations

Mendelssohn's Variations Sérieuses take a single somber theme through seventeen variations, each testing a different color, tempo, and touch. What starts as a plain, almost hymn-like idea gradually opens into virtuosic passagework and stormy octaves before settling back into quiet resolve. Performing it means tracking that emotional arc note by note — never losing the thread of the original theme, even at its most transformed.