The Tema con variazioni op. 29a is an excerpt from Miklós Rózsa’s Sinfonia concertante op. 29, originally commissioned by the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky as a double concerto for violin and violoncello for himself and the violinist Jascha Heifetz. Rózsa composed the work in 1958 and subsequently revised it several times. Piatigorsky and Heifetz eventually played only the second movement – the variation movement arranged for chamber music here – together. Seven different variations follow the theme played by the cello.