Frédéric Chaslin, 11 Variations for Trombone & Orchestra after Mahler. Jörgen van Rijen, Sofia Phil

The last time I conducted Mahler's Symphony No. 3, I was impressed when I saw and listened to the solo trombone in the first movement. I thought, "Wow, that's probably the great solo that ALL trombonists learn and play, and certainly the longest and most famous solo in orchestral literature." - So why not make it a longer piece?

And of course, variations were the obvious way to go. A variation takes part of the theme and develops or transforms it to make it a completely original piece. Each variation has to have its own strong personality, but still reflect one of many aspects of the original theme.

I chose to travel through time, starting with a polka because that is the first piece Mahler wrote at the age of 6. Then comes Bohemina Valse because Mahler grew up in Bohemia. Then Leipzig, because that was one of Mahler's first important positions as a conductor, and Leipzig means Bach, so a fugue. Then comes Jazz 1,(Mahler was ready to explore jazz when he died), Mahler (a kind of variation with an extremely Mahlerian style, like a "study of Mahler", then Cauchemar in 12 tones, because Mahler confessed to Alma that the new music coming from Schoenberg was like a nightmare for him, because he had to admit that his own music was old-fashioned. This is followed by Eroica, with the last part of the theme, which has a heroic character. Then Jazz 2, then Unfinished, using elements and moods from the last movement of Symphony No. 10 (the Unfinished), but always developing material from the theme, then Vision to the Beyond, which transforms the theme into all sorts of lounge, hip-hop and rap styles, and then the final variation, which revisits the beginning of the theme and leads into delirium, which leads into a frantic Yiddish dance.