Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25

Variations on a Nursery Tune for piano and orchestra, Op. 25, composed 1914. Based on the melody 'Ah, vous dirais-je Maman' (known in English as 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'), the work opens with a mock-solemn orchestral introduction before the familiar tune is announced by the solo piano, and then proceeds through twelve witty and brilliant variations. Dohnányi had a profound gift for musical humour, and this work deploys every resource of post-Romantic orchestration and virtuoso piano writing in the service of a sustained joke about the pretensions of high art — while simultaneously being a dazzling display of compositional craft. One of the most beloved Hungarian works in the concert repertoire, it has never left the active programme since its premiere.