This work, a loosely structured outing built on a theme composed by Franz Danzi, is a virtuosic showpiece for clarinet and strings that holds forth with an energetic drive, an often melodramatic tone, and harmony that takes some interesting turns without always being sure where it's headed. The work can be played with a string quartet or a string orchestra. The clarinet begins the introduction with an animated solo over tremolando strings and eventually settles into a simple and reposed presentation of Danzi's theme. During the course of the subsequent variations the clarinet provides virtuosic obbligato lines as the strings carry the melody in straightforward and subtly varied restatements.

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