Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variationen über ein Rokoko-Thema op. 33: Orchester mit Solo

The triumphal concert hall success of Tchaikovsky’s most popular and musically most valuable concert pieces for solo instrument and orchestra was preceded by severe teething troubles. His Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 23 of 1874/75 was slated by Tchaikovsky’s mentor and potential performer at the premiere, the pianist, conductor and director of the Moscow Conservatory, Nikolai Rubinstein. So Hans von Bulow premiered it gratefully and enthusiastically (in Boston, USA, on 25 October 1875). Leopold Auer, violin virtuoso and professor at the Petersburg Conservatory, to whom Tchaikovsky wanted to dedicate his Violin Concerto Op. 35 of 1878, refused to premiere it – he regarded the solo part as unrewarding and unplayable. On 4 December 1881, Adolf Brodsky premiered the Violin Concerto in Vienna, with Hans Richter conducting, but Eduard Hanslick wrote a crushing and unpleasant review. The Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra Op. 33 were finally published by their dedicatee, the German cellist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, after he had almost completely rewritten and then premiered it on 18 December 1877 in Moscow, while Tchaikovsky, who had asked him to publish the work, was abroad. The original version, which can be found in this edition, was not published until the 1950s.