Rachmaninow: Rhapsodie über ein Thema von Paganini ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Gerstein ∙ Gardner 

I guess you missed the fact that they're German. 😉

Kenneth Dower Hehe. I’m sure they appreciate it.

Please leave the Lord Jesus out of this.

@@gerhardg5186 Leave yourself out of it. Jesus Christ, man. Just walk away.

No it wasn't. The Theme of Paganini may be (the violinist and the basis), but this piece is from Rachmaninow, not Paganini. Rachmaninow himself played the solo piano part.

Uh, no. Paganini wrote a composition for violin, and then, as many composers still do, Rachmaninoff took the theme and composed a set of variations on it for piano and orchestra. That you don't like it is your absolute right, but to have your facts wrong is unforgivable.

"man hammers on a mechanical tool called piano" This says it all about your musical insight - absolute shit. Anyone who thinks the piano is a percussive instrument is not a musician. Period.

I think that what the person who started this thread, Mr. Muller, was meaning to imply in his opening statement was that the original, iconic theme was actually composed by Paganini that was included in a set of fairly to very difficult VIOLIN studies (a set of 24 "Caprises" for solo violin). They were written by Paganini, who himself was reported to be an incredibly gifted violin virtuoso, not only to show off the incredible flexibility of the violin as a solo instrument but also to showcase the artistic virtuosity of the performing violinist. What is so amazing and ingenious about this iconic theme is that you could take it and bend it, contort it, add other seemingly unrelated sub themes and musical motifs to it (note Rachmaninoff's inclusion of the also iconic "Dies Ires" sub theme interspersed here and there throughout the "Rhapsody") and in the end finish ANY variation so it ends up "smelling like a rose". That is the appeal of this incredibly simple theme in terms of why it has been used so often by composers after Paganini as a main theme off of which variations can be written. Aside from the iconic, sweetly melodic, and, I dare say, quite popular 18th variation and inclusion of the "Dies Ires" sub theme here and there, what Rachmaninoff intended to write here was a sweeping, almost "dreamlike" musical setting (hence the word in the title "Rhapsody") based on this simple Paganini theme where he could take incredible creative liberties to create an artistic, musical masterpiece that not only showcases the virtuosic talents of both orchestra and (especially) pianist (there are some really incredibly difficult piano passages throughout the work that even Rachmaninoff, the great piano virtuoso, himself found to be hard to play) but also illustrates how flexible and incredibly adaptable this theme actually was and is.