Variations sérieuses [SEP] instrumentation
Variations sérieuses
Variations sérieuses, Op. 54, is a composition for solo piano by Felix Mendelssohn consisting of a theme in D minor and 17 variations. It was completed on 4 June 1841. A performance lasts about eleven minutes.
The work was written as part of a campaign to raise funds for the erection of a large bronze statue of Ludwig van Beethoven in his home town of Bonn. The publisher Pietro Mecchetti asked Mendelssohn to contribute to a 'Beethoven Album', published in January 1842, which also included
definitive musical statement." He gives very high praise to the Beethoven "Diabelli Variations" and the Op. 101 Sonata, and says Brendel "declares his love of Busoni's austere genius in every bar of Elegies Nos. 3 and 6 while Mendelssohn's "Variations sérieuses" are given with unflagging musical energy." He goes on to say that Chopin's "Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante" is "a delicious surprise, the Andante played with the most simple and refined eloquence, the Polonaise given with a gentle