Description
It was either singing of a workman or baker - there are two versions of this story - that introduced Tchaikovsky to the folk melody that her immortalised in his Andante Cantabile, the slow movement of his first string quartet, Opus 11, composed in 1871. An immediate hit, the movement was quickly extracted from the quartet and published in the numerous arrangements through which it became on of Tchaikovsky's most famous short works. This arrangement printed here is by cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen who premiered the Rococo Variations in 1877. To enhance the melody's brilliance on the Cello - the first violin plays it in the quartet - Fitzenhagen raised it a semitone from the original key of Bb major. Tchaikovsky legitimised Fitzenhagen's arrangement by setting it for cello and string orchestra sometime between 1886 and 1888, around the same time he composed his Pezzo Capriccioso, Opus 62 for cello and orchestra. In the present edition, the separate cello part contains my suggestions for fingerings and bowings. The markings in the piano score follow the cello and strings version from the russian edition of Tchaikovsky's complete works. ----Jeffrey Solow