The theme and variations by Tartini are extracts from his Tema con variazione in A minor for solo violin, which may or may not have been meant as an additional movement for the Sonate piccole no 7.

This intriguing violin recital hangs together by a slender but persistent thread. The overarching theme is Italy and the Italian style in instrumental music, symbolized by Giuseppe Tartini, whose Sonata No. 7 and the codicil of variations found in its original manuscript are heard at several junctures in the program. Then we are transported to the 20th century and Luigi Dallapiccola, who helped reestablish a new music tradition in Italy, was a friend and contemporary of Goffredo Petrassi, teacher to Luciano Berio and mentor to the Americans Elliot Carter and George Rochberg. All of the modern works make referential gestures, to the music of the past or to the other composers, so that a sense of community reaching out across time and place is ever present, a sense beautifully communicated in violinist Michelle Makarski's exquisitely refined yet intense playing.