Sehr mäßig (Very moderate) 
Sehr schnell (Very fast) 
Ruhig fließend (Calmly flowing) 
 

Almost thirty years after Berg’s Sonata, Webern’s Variations, Op. 27 is a work which demonstrates twelve-tone technique at its most refined and distilled. The title only tells part of the story. The third movement – and the first to be finished, in July 1936 – was described by René Leibowitz (the leading French apostle for the Second Viennese School) as a set of five variations. This is confirmed by Webern himself: ten days after finishing the third movement he wrote that ‘the completed part is a set of variations. The whole work will be a kind of Suite.’ According to Webern himself, the first movement (completed in August 1936) is in sonata form, while the second (November 1936) is a kind of scherzo. In other words, Webern’s idea of calling the complete piece a ‘Suite’ is perhaps a better description of the overall structure than ‘Variations’. The first performance was given in 1937 by Peter Stadlen who worked closely with Webern while preparing the premiere. His copy, marked up by Webern (published in 1979) contains several revelations. The most important of these is that Webern did not see this piece as an exercise in chilly abstraction – the very first page is covered in markings suggesting highly expressive music: ‘coolly passionate lyricism’ at the start, ‘molto espressivo’ a few bars later, and so on. Always conscious of his musical heritage, Webern likened the first movement to a late Brahms intermezzo, and the second movement to the ‘Badinerie’ from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2. The result is music that is challenging for listener and player, but enormously rewarding too.