Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra in A major, op. 33

Program notes

About the Work

The Rococo Variations are unique in Tchaikovsky’s output: a heartfelt act of homage to the eighteenth-century music of Mozart, the composer Tchaikovsky revered above all others. He composed the work in late 1876 and early 1877, dedicating it to Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, a German cellist and his colleague at the Moscow Conservatory. Despite the title, the theme is not actually drawn from the Rococo era; it is Tchaikovsky’s own original melody, written deliberately in an eighteenth-century style.

The result is one of the most graceful and elegant works in the cello repertoire. After a brief orchestral introduction, the cellist presents the theme with utmost simplicity, followed by seven variations of progressively increasing virtuosity. The orchestral writing is exquisitely transparent (small woodwind ensembles, gentle horn calls, light string accompaniment), keeping the focus firmly on the soloist.

There is a lingering controversy attached to this score. Fitzenhagen, the dedicatee, took it upon himself to “improve” Tchaikovsky’s piece: he reordered the variations to make them more virtuosically effective, eliminated one of them entirely, and rewrote portions of the cello part. This Fitzenhagen-edited version was the only one performed for over half a century until Tchaikovsky’s original was finally heard again in Moscow in 1941. Most cellists today still perform the familiar Fitzenhagen edition. Tchaikovsky was upset by the changes, but in the end he let them stand.

Listen for the seductive lyrical lines of the Andante variations, which display the cello’s singing tone at its most beautiful, and for the playful conversation between cello and woodwinds throughout. The closing variation is a brilliant coda of dazzling virtuosic display, and unmistakably Tchaikovsky beneath the eighteenth-century costume.