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Imagine you heard a quick, sprightly theme, followed by a slow, lyrical, gorgeously romantic theme.  The two themes sound very different in both profile and emotional mood. Now imagine you are told that the second theme is the first one in disguise! That is the magic of theme and variations, which we have discussed in previous episodes. In the hands of an incredibly gifted composer like Sergei Rachmaninoff, a theme by the  19th-century virtuoso violinist, Nicolo Paganini, can take on  so many different guises that a variation of the theme can become more famous than the theme itself! That is exactly what occurs in the 18th variation of Rachmaninoff's masterpiece, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.  This episode will chart the course of exactly how that works!