Themes & Variations

MW IV April 9 & 10, 2026
Themes and Variations
By David Amado

We close our season with a celebration of musical transformation—of themes remembered, reimagined, and reborn. Across centuries and styles, composers have returned to familiar material not to repeat it, but to reveal what else it might become.

The concert opens with Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn, a masterclass in structure, invention, and homage. The theme—once believed to be by Haydn but now thought to be of unknown origin—serves as the foundation for a series of variations that explore a wide range of moods, textures, and techniques. Brahms honors the Classical clarity of his predecessors while expanding the form with Romantic richness and depth. The result is both reverent and original—a conversation across generations.

Next, we spotlight our own principal horn, Karen Schubert, in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4. Written for the composer’s longtime friend and horn player Joseph Leutgeb, the concerto is full of wit, warmth, and dazzling charm. Though the natural horn of Mozart’s day lacked valves, Leutgeb’s skill inspired writing that is both virtuosic and playful. Today, with modern instruments, the concerto still sparkles with character and remains one of the most beloved works in the repertoire.

After intermission, we dive into a vivid example of variation on a grand scale: Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Composed in 1943, the work takes light, occasionally quirky piano duets by Weber and reimagines them as a colorful, rhythmically charged orchestral showcase. Hindemith magnifies the source material’s charm into something bold and contemporary, full of shifting textures, sharp humor, and propulsive energy. As part of the performance, pianist Tao Lin and Maestro Amado will offer selections from the original Weber works, giving us a glimpse of the raw material before it’s swept into Hindemith’s exuberant reworking.

As a final toast to the season, we offer a selection of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances—music rooted in folk tradition, lifted and transformed by a composer who understood that variation is not just a technique, but a way of composing—and of listening—more deeply.