The Variations in B-flat major on 'Là ci darem la mano', op. 2

Chopin wrote the variations at eighteen as a composition exercise while studying harmony and counterpoint with Józef Elsner in Warsaw, taking the duet from Mozart's Don Giovanni as his theme. He played them in Vienna on 11 August 1829, before publication, at a concert arranged under the patronage of Count Gallenberg. The review that followed made his reputation: Schumann, then an unknown critic, opened his notice with the sentence that has been quoted ever since — hats off, gentlemen, a genius. It was his first work for piano and orchestra.