Your Favourite Theme-and-Variations

[listener]

Since "greatness" does not seem to be the prime consideration, I'll add
ALKAN   Le festin d'Esope   
BEETHOVEN  for cello and piano: on "See the Conq'ring Hero Comes", "Ein Mädchen" and 'Bei Mannern..."
BRAHMS ...on a theme of Haydn (orchestra or piano 4-hands)
and the FRANCK  Symphonic Variations
and DOHNANYI' Variations on a Nursery Tune for piano and orch. which does have a tendency to wander but has magnificent orchestration.     I'll omit REGER (Mozart and Hiller) which do wander off as much as my mind does when I hear them.

[Opus106]

Since "greatness" does not seem to be the prime consideration, I'll add

Thanks for the additions so far. I look forward to more off-the-beaten track stuff.

[TheGSMoeller]

Britten's T&V of Purcell and Frank Bridge have both made it on this thread...another good one is Britten's Temporal Variations for Oboe and Piano, later transcribed for Oboe and Orchestra(not by Britten)

[The Six]

Beethoven WoO 80

[mszczuj]

My personal Top 6:

Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile - 4th movement of Op. 131
Arietta: Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile - 2nd movement of Op. 111
Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung. Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo - 3rd movement of Op. 109
Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo - 3rd movement of Op. 135
Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile - 2nd movement of Op. 127
Adagio molto e cantabile – Andante Moderato - 3rd movement  of Op. 125

All by Ludwig van Beethoven

[Florestan]

In no particular order:

Brahms - Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (favorite variation: yes, that one...)
Schubert - String Quintet "The Trout", Mvt. 4
Mozart - Duport Variations

[madaboutmahler]

Elgar Enigma Variations
Liszt Totentanz

and of course, cannot resist the:
Britten Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell

[Sergeant Rock]

Elgar Enigma Variations

Enigma, of course, but I also love the British variations that came right before and right after:

Hubert Parry  Symphonic Variations (1897)

Havergal Brian   Burlesque Variations on an Original Theme (1903)

A few more favorites:

Ernst von Donányi   Variations on a Nursery Song Op.25

William Walton   Variations on a Theme by Hindemith

Max Reger    Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart

Sarge

[madaboutmahler]

Hubert Parry  Symphonic Variations (1897)

Absolutely love that piece, Sarge. The others I will have to take a listen to sometime soon.

[Lisztianwagner]

Some of mine:

Liszt Totentanz
Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Brahms Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Beethoven Diabelli Variations
Elgar Enigma Variations

[Holden]

Numero Uno - LvB Diabelli Variations

In no particular order

LvB T&V From Kreutzer VS

LvB - 32 Vns in C minor on an Original Theme

Liszt Paganini Etude #6

Brahms - Haydn Variations

Schumann - Etudes Symphoniques Op 13

[Ten thumbs]

Whilst there are many great sets of variations, here are my particular favorites:

Glazounov Op.72 I was almost brought up on this one. Not a dull variation amongst them.

Medtner: Op.47 2nd Improvisation. These are not pure variations, being, as the title states, improvisations on the theme in various styles, but I think they qualify. This is a work of vast scope.

[Elgarian]

1. Enigma Variations, pre-eminently. But also I'm thrilled to see that Sarge got there before me with:
2. Parry's Symphonic Variations. Great fun.

[Sergeant Rock]

Listening to Vaughan Williams this afternoon reminded me of another set of variations I love: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.

Sarge

[Christo]

Listening to Vaughan Williams this afternoon reminded me of another set of variations I love: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.
Sarge

At its best - there are some fine performance to proof it - the piece is an understated equivalent to the Tallis Fantasia.

[Brian]

Bach: Ciaccona in D minor for the solo violin
Beethoven: String Quartet Op 127 (ii)
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opp 26 (i), 57 (ii), 109 (iii), 111 (ii)
Brahms: Symphony No 4 (iv)
Dvorak: Sextet (iv), Symphony No 8 (iv)

I also like Sarge's Dohnanyi pick!

The Marcia funebre in the Sinfonia eroica, natch.

Now hang on a moment, there! When was that a theme-and-variations? I'd be more interested in the parallel movement from the Seventh, though...

[listener]

some more surfacing from distant memories:
Wilfred JOSEPHS  Variations on the theme of Beethoven  - not at all unpleasant considering he's a composer-dentist
- the 1st movement of GOLDMARK's  Rustic Wedding Symphony (the rest is worth hearing too)
KODALY "Peacock" Variations
and for organ, IVES Variations on "America"
and a couple of oddities: the RUBINSTEIN piano variations on  "Yankee Doodle", also WIENIAWSKY (violin and piano), and ERNST for solo violin on "The Last Rose of Summer"

[Opus106]

Bach: Ciaccona in D minor for the solo violin

It's not a work on its own, you know.

Dvorak: Symphony No 8 (iv)

A long-time fav.

the RUBINSTEIN piano variations on  "Yankee Doodle"

That ought to be fun.

[BobsterLobster]

Well,if we're allowed Chaconnes, then of course I would include the Bach Chaconne for violin (surely this is all we need to describe it? If I said the Chaconne, I'm sure we'd all know what piece we were talking about. And I do think it stands on it's own... as well as being one of mankind's greatest achievements, along with putting a man on the moon :-) ).
Also the Vitali Chaconne... or the Chaconne by whoever wrote it and pretended to be Vitali.

But many of my favourite variations are by jazz musicians working on a classical theme. As well as the Loussier variations on the Allegretto from Beethoven 7, I absolutely adore this CD:



which has some beautiful jazz variations on the 'Libera Me' from the Faure Requiem. Yaron Herman is one of my favourite pianists... classical or otherwise.

I had a dig through my recordings to see what other variations I like and had a first listen to the Godowsky Passacaglia (played by Marc-Andre Hamelin), which is a theme and variations on Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony.

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Really a very wonderful and profound piece of music.

I also enjoyed the Variations on La Folia from this CD:

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[Karl Henning]

Well, if we're allowed Chaconnes

Point of information:

The chaconne is a variation form, but . ..  not theme and variations, strictly speaking.

(I have no opinion on whether this is in compliance with the OP.)