Ana Vidović plays the Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9 by Fernando Sor. It is a fitting piece for her: among her first international prizes was the first prize at the Fernando Sor Competition in Rome.
About the Variations
Sor took his theme from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, the chorus "Das klinget so herrlich" that accompanies the magic bells. The melody is light and almost naive, which is exactly what makes it good material for variations: it leaves the composer room to show what can be done with it.
The work opens with a slow introduction in a minor key, serious and almost operatic, before the theme arrives in the major. Then follow the variations, each one exploring a different aspect of the instrument: running figures, arpeggios, a variation in the minor and a brilliant ending. The piece became one of Sor's most performed works and remains a standard of the concert repertoire.
What makes it hard is the balance between clarity and character. Sor wrote with the precision of a classically trained composer, and the variations only work when every voice is clear. Yet each one also needs its own personality, or the set turns into an exercise. Our article on Sor's Mozart Variations discusses the work in detail.
About Fernando Sor
Sor, born in Barcelona in 1778, was the first composer to give the guitar a body of work comparable to the chamber music of his time. His studies are still at the centre of every guitarist's training. Our portrait of Fernando Sor and our article on the Sor studies introduce his music.
About Ana Vidović
Ana Vidović grew up in Karlovac near Zagreb, started playing at the age of five and at thirteen became the youngest student at the National Musical Academy in Zagreb, in the class of Istvan Romer. She went on to graduate from the Peabody Conservatory. She has won first prizes at the Albert Augustine International Competition in Bath and the Francisco Tárrega Competition in Spain as well as in Rome, and has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Musikverein in Vienna. She plays a guitar by Jim Redgate, who builds a model that carries her name.
Watch the Performance
You can hear Ana Vidović in Tárrega's tremolo masterpiece in our article on her recording of Recuerdos de la Alhambra, and find more works in our overview of famous classical guitar pieces.
