140

Variations chromatiques

282 bars

piano solo

Composition: summer 1868. It was inspired, according to Galabert, by hearing Élie Delaborde playing the pédalier-piano. Bizet also used to play Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor. Variation 13 includes a reference to the main theme from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. The theme and the first seven variations are in the minor, the remaining eight in the major.

Autograph score: F-Pn MS 455, Malherbe bequest. 12-stave paper, oblong, 260 x 347 mm., 7 f. (title page, music p. 1–12, blank)

with Hartmann’s stamp and G.H. 237 inked in. Gallica.

Printed scores:

pl. no.:

G.H. 237

pages:

title page, blank, music 1-15, blank

ann.:

Bibliographie de la France, 19-12-1868

copies:

F-Pn Ac.p.1836 (dépôt légal 1868)

F-Pn Vm12 3379

B-Br

GB-Cu

GB-Lbl H.3349(6) (stamped 16-12-1868)

Choudens, 265, rue St Honoré, pl. no. A.C. 4639, 15 p., c. 1880, 'édition de concert'. F-Pn Vm12 3380, F-Pn Vm12 288, D-B, I-Mc, US-BEm, US-Wc.

Choudens continued to reissue the piece from later addresses. CH-Gc, D-B, US-BEm, US-SLp. IMSLP.

Choudens, A.C.17422, 19 p., 1933, edited by Felix Weingartner. GB-NWm, US-Wc.

Dover, New York, in Nineteenth-Century European Piano Music, edited by John Gillespie, p. 72–86.

Editions musicales du Marais, 31 p., 1991, edited by Alain Planès, in the series Patrimoine.

Printed arrangement, édition de salon:

1
Choudens, 265, rue St Honoré, pl. no. A.C. 4640, 9 p., c. 1880, Édition de salon comprising only eight of the fifteen variations. Variations 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12 and 13 are omitted and the coda is modified. This version may have been prepared by Bizet for Hartmann (see Letters). F-Pn Ac.p.1860(A), F-Pn Vm12 3380bis, CH-Bps, GB-En, US-Lu.

2
Choudens, 9 p., 1933, edited by Felix Weingartner.

Printed arrangement, orchestra:

1
Choudens, pl. no. A.C. 15498, 54 p., 1933, arranged by Felix Weingartner. US-Wc. CH-Bps kr XXIX 162 is Weingartner’s manuscript full score while CH-Bps kr XXIX 104 is the manuscript Stichvorlage with corrections by Weingartner.

2
Reprinted by Kalmus, c. 1980. US-NYp.

Dedicatee: Stephen Heller (1813–88), Hungarian pianist and composer resident in Paris since 1838.

Letters:

7-1868 Bizet to Galabert:

'Je viens de terminer de Grandes variations chromatiques pour piano. C’est le thème chromatique que j’avais esquissé cet hiver. Je suis, je vous avoue, tout à fait content de ce morceau. C’est traité très audacieusement, vous verrez. [...] Tout cela paraîtra en septembre ou octobre.'

Galabert, p. 147

26-8-1868 Bizet to Lacombe:

'Je vous enverrai trois morceaux de piano, dont un, intitulé Variations chromatiques, vous intéressera, je crois.'

Imbert, p.

[11-1868] Bizet to Hartmann:

Il envoie les Variations chromatiques 'réduites'.

Les Autographes, 7-1995

Documents:

'Après avoir entendu M. Delaborde sur le piano à pédalier de la maison Érard, il songea à composer de la musique de piano. Mais il ne donna suite à ce projet qu'après avoir d'abord écrit la symphonie.'

Galabert, p. 29

'Le souvenir de ces auditions me revient souvent, [...] étude de la Chasse de Heller, le numéro XIV en fa mineur des Nuits Blanches du même, les 32 variations de Beethoven sur un thème en ut mineur, [...]'

Galabert, p. 32

Performances:

23-12-1871, Société Nationale de Musique, played by Bizet.

Weingartner’s orchestral version was first played in Paris by the Pasdeloup orchestra on 8-1-1933.

Boris Kochno’s ballet Mascarade, with choreography by Victor Gsovski, was performed to Weingartner’s orchestral arrangement by the Ballets des Champs-Elysées in November 1948.

Discography:

H. Boschi, 1955
Glenn Gould, 1973
Par Setrak, 1985
Nikolai Petrov, 1988
Marie-François Bucquet, n.d.
Riccardo Zadra, 1995

Orchestrated by Weingartner:

Louisville O, Mester, 1973

Bibliography:

Pigot (1886) 124, 318
Pigot (1911) 112, 282
Curtiss 222, 466
Dean 75, 148-49, 174, 182, 264
Wright 34, 75
Lacombe 78, 427–29, 536

Marmontel, Symphonistes et virtuoses (Paris, 1881), p. 262.