„“It’s crazy – I actually don’t like variations!” Gunilla Süssmann laughs. “Apart from certain

exceptions.” Whenever she hears a theme restated ad nauseam, caught in unchanging harmonies,

she finds her prejudices confirmed. “Then I feel trapped inside the music. Certain sets of variations

have nevertheless managed to find their way into my repertoire.”

The art of variation has close ties with the art of improvisation. Audiences revere musicians who

can extemporize on a given theme, presenting it with refinement and elaborately increasing its

effect. That kind of spontaneous music-making boomed in Mozart and Beethoven’s day:

competitions pitting one star pianist against another were all the rage. Such improvisations gave

rise to sets of variations which introduced the theme at the beginning and declined it according to

skill. To score extra points with the audience, some virtuosos would choose themes from wellknown

operas. Gunilla Süssmann has selected three sets of variations featuring themes with widely

different origins and treated in thoroughly different ways.…….“