Born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russian Empire; died on November 6, 1893, in Saint Petersburg.
Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33
Composed: winter of 1876-77
Estimated length: 20 minutes
First performance: November 30, 1877, in Moscow, with Wilhelm Fitzhagen as the soloist and Nikolai Rubinstein conducting.
It is thanks to Mozart that I have devoted myself to music,” Tchaikovsky once wrote. Variations on a Rococo Theme belongs to a part of his output that shows his close affinity with the Classical period of music history—even though Tchaikovsky is generally regarded as the epitome of Russian Romanticism. His later Orchestral Suite No. 4 of 1887, written to commemorate the centennial of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, is even known as “Mozartiana.” For some listeners, the neoclassical style that Igor Stravinsky would pioneer in the early 20th century is foreshadowed by these works.
Rococo Variations originated in 1876, when Tchaikovsky was teaching at the recently founded Moscow Conservatory. When the German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, a colleague on staff there,
gave the premiere in 1877, he altered some aspects of the score and even changed the order that Tchaikovsky had specified for the variations—without the composer’s consent.
Despite the title, Tchaikovsky invented the theme himself, though it does mimic the elaborately decorative rococo style in vogue in the 18th century. The theme has a pleasing symmetry comprising two parts, each of which is repeated and is ornamented with a chromatic intervention by the ensemble—a kind of expressive wrapping.
Tchaikovsky uses a reduced orchestra—in comparison with Romantic standards—that allows for transparency of color. He attempts to fabricate the vanished sound world of Mozart’s time as he reimagined it. His lightness of touch allows for an effective balance of the solo cello with the ensemble. Rococo Variations can thus be viewed as a cello concerto in disguise—in an era when concertos for that instrument were a rarity. (Dvořák’s landmark contribution to the genre lay two decades in the future.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
For all his effort to fashion a nostalgic image of the past, Tchaikovsky’s own voice is unmistakable.
An orchestral introduction and coda frame a series of variations on a theme first stated by the soloist. Each variation presents the theme in a distinctive light, calling for charming—but challenging—virtuosity, an excursion into minor-key pathos, and even an exquisitely intimate dialogue with the flute. The final section looks back at several of the preceding variations before bringing the work to a thrilling finish.
In addition to solo cello, scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns and strings
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
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