Saint-Saëns: Thème Varié, Op. 97

Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) composed Thème Varié, Op. 97 in 1894 as a assignment piece in a piano exam / competition at Conservatoire. The piece starts with an introduction, which already sounds like a variation. After a small cadenza of introduction a choral-like theme follows. The variations are not numbered explicitly, but five sections are discernible according to the tempo changes. The most interesting is the first one (Allegro brillante). If played evenly, this sounds almost like a cross rhythm of 3:7.

After I failed miserably last year playing Barcarolle 5 (Faure) and Variation (Arensky) before the audience, I decided to practice C major pieces, which might be easier to memorize. This one is easily to memorize, but demanding technically. It took me almost a half year to become capable of playing in tempo. So this did not serve as a training of memorization; Faure and Arensky were prepared in a month.

As for the playing technique, this piece gave me a good opportunity of recognizing that I no longer agility and smoothness of youth. The piano professor advised me on trill, arpeggio, and other things. He encouraged me above all to play interestingly (= attractively). Unfortunately I forgot the advise and played quite mechanically.

Many will stop listening intently after bar 3, the melody is not presented attractively enough. It is a shame, but I was not careful about it.

instrument: Yamaha C3L

The studio is quite small and camera is locate so close to the piano that it lopsided when I play high notes in f.