This is the last of the 15 sets of variations Mozart wrote for solo keyboard and comes from the year of his premature death in 1791. The theme it uses is from the song "Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding" (A Wife Is the Most Glorious Thing) by Benedikt Schack, who composed it for a musical play, Der Dumme Gartner, by Schikaneder. The music is light and colorful, full of high spirits and yet considerably more substantive than most of Mozart's other sets of variations. The work opens with a statement of the sprightly theme and follows with the lively, colorful first variation. The second is more elaborate, but like the previous one, not far removed from the source theme. The ensuing variation is more muscular and features some interesting octave passages, while the next maintains the jovial spirit and features much brilliant, colorful writing. Some imitative contrapuntal activity appears at the outset in the next, while the lively sixth sets the stage for the whimsical, deftly atmospheric Adagio, the longest of the variants. The concluding Allegro variation is energetic and festive, and features some deliciously wrong notes in the lower register. This quarter-hour or so masterwork concludes with a restatement of the Schack theme.

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