Beethoven - Variations on Ukrainian Themes, Op. 107, Nos. 3 and 7 (Transcribed for Cello and Piano)

Beethoven’s friendship with Count Andrey Razumovsky helped spark his interest in music from the Russian Empire. String players often know this connection through the Razumovsky String Quartets, Op. 59, each of which includes a Thème russe. Beethoven also turned to melodies from the region now known as Ukraine in two of his Ten National Airs with Variations, Op. 107, originally for piano with optional flute.

No. 3 is based on the song “Пожалуйте, сударыня!” (Please, Madame) by Sergey Nikiforovich Marin, a Russian officer during the Napoleonic Wars as well as a poet and satirist. Beethoven identifies the melody as petite Russe or “Little Russian,” referring to Ukraine, though the song itself appears to have been heard in Ukraine rather than being Ukrainian in origin. The set includes seven variations, although Beethoven marked only five of them.

No. 7 is based on one of the most famous Ukrainian songs, “Їхав козак за Дунай” (The Kozak Rode Beyond the Danube), attributed to the philosopher Semen Klymovskyj. This melody became widely known in Western Europe as “Schöne Minka,” inspiring variation sets by Weber, Hummel, and others. In later tradition, the tune also became associated with the humorous song “Ти ж мене підманула” (You Lied to Me) and has appeared in many different popular and folk contexts.

These transcriptions for cello and piano add two of Beethoven’s lesser-known variation sets to the familiar cello repertoire alongside the existing Beethoven variation sets on themes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Handel’s Judas Maccabeus. The piano part is preserved as Beethoven wrote it, while the original flute part has been adapted idiomatically for the cello with appropriate transpositions.

ASTA level: 2-3