Theme and variations

Theme and variations: a melody undergoing constant transformations, contracting or expanding and firing the composer’s imagination in original and exhilarating directions. Which is how Paganini’s theme gave rise to the sublime 18th variation in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody, and how Elgar’s ‘enigmatic’ theme yielded the English composer’s sensual Nimrod variation. The Athens State Orchestra opens its new season with a series of imaginative musical metamorphoses performed under the baton of its artistic director, Vassilis Christopoulos.