Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations; Works for Cello & Orchestra
Naxos
CD
$19.99May 08, 2026
Tchaikovsky composed the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who re-ordered the variations, infuriating the composer. The cello part for the virtuosic Pezzo capriccioso was also altered by it's dedicatee, Anatoly Brandukov. In the performances heard here, Tchaikovsky's original intentions are restored. To accompany these pieces, Gabriel Schwabe has provided two of his own arrangements - the Canzonetta from the Violin Concerto and Valse sentimentale from the Six Morceaux. The album ends with the second version - never before recorded - of the romantic fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet.
.. this young musketeer of the bow has been captivating all of his audiences. He is the rising star of the French cello. -LE FIGARO Recorded with Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and conducted by Michael Sanderling, Edgar's new album features a key piece in the cello repertoire: Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. The short pieces with piano, here played with the brilliant David Kadouch, give opportunities to release multiple tracks on DSP's and multiply chances to get playlisted. Telerama wrote about the artists: "Both known as outstanding soloists, David Kadouch and Edgar Moreau also form a close-knit, well-balanced chamber duo, playing with passion and commitment.". Moreau was awarded at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2013 and 2015, and was named an ECHO Rising Star in 2017. He has been a Cello Professor at the Paris Conservatoire National Superieur since fall 2023. He plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1711.
An unusual, intriguing coupling of C.P.E. Bach's "original" Rococo, and the neo-classical ones by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. Pieter Wispelwey is equally at ease on the modern or period cello. His acute stylistic awareness, combined with a truly original interpretation and a phenomenal technical mastery, has won the hearts of critics and public alike in a wide-ranging repertoire. Wispelwey plays a 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini cello.
Siemens AG and the Orchestra Academy of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester are linked by a partnership spanning many years. What began with the family of the firm's founder Werner von Siemens, has continued across the generations through to today's company. The intensive fostering of young talent, be it in science, research, art, culture, business or technology, is today Siemens' credo, one that sees the company live it's social responsibility in a sustainable manner. Siemens can look back on a long tradition in the promotion of music in particular. Now, the Siemens Arts Program is going still further in this direction by initiating it's own projects, in which new work is created in direct collaboration with artists. The focus here is on contemporary visual arts, cultural education and classical music. The present recording, which also came about within this framework, offered the Orchestra Academy of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and it's young scholarship holders the opportunity to record an album under exceptional production conditions, bringing harmony to the well-known cello repertoire with a technically innovative audio method. Intensive collaboration between the Orchestra Academy and the Siemens Arts Program, it's artistic director Stephan Frucht, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester solo cellist Jakob Spahn, and the Immersive Audio Network IAN, has here given rise to a completely new aural experience, lending the symphonically arranged cello works of Tchaikovsky and Gulda a transparency redolent of chamber music.
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Variations on a Roccoco Theme, Op. 33 Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62 Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello English Chamber Orchestra Benjamin Britten, conductor
Recorded live from Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh, 16 June 1968 Bonus: BRITTEN, B.: Gloriana, Op. 53 (excerpts)
Peter Pears, tenor Aldeburgh Festival Singers English Chamber Orchestra Benjamin Britten, conductor
Recorded at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh, 5 June 1970
Picture format: NTSC 4:3 Sound format: Enhance Mono Region code: 0 (worldwide) Menu language: English Booklet notes: English, French, German Running time: 68 mins No. of DVDs: 1
Saint-Saens, Lalo: Cello Concertos; Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations / Yo-Yo Ma
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98Sep 25, 2015
Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly designed and graphically pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world's preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24 bit High Resolution Audio.
Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 3 & Variations on a Rococo Theme
Fuga Libera
CD
$20.99Feb 28, 2025
Music is not a hoax, it is a revelation... It reveals elements of beauty that cannot exist in any other sphere, the contemplation of which reconciles us to life not temporarily, but forever. It enlightens and brings joy." These words of Tchaikovsky can refer to both of the works presented here. Tchaikovsky called his Suite No. 3 the most successful of all his works performed abroad and successfully conducted many performances of it on tours. For Dmitry Liss, the chief conductor of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, "this is one of the most unexpected works by Tchaikovsky and my near-favorite. If you look at the final movement from a modern perspective, it's hectic stylistic diversity looks almost postmodernist and has been created with subtle and stylish use of irony. The theme of the Suite's finale is consonant with that of the Rococo Variations, hence our decision to include both works on this album." The world-renowned cellist Boris Andrianov performs the Variations on this recording. He considered it "a sacred duty for a Russian cellist who is also a winner of the Tchaikovsky competition not only to record this work, but also to look at it anew.
Johannes Moser's acclaimed interpretation of Elgar's profoundly elegiac and lyrical Cello Concerto and of Tchaikovsky's elegant Rococo Variations returns to the market in an affordable stereo edition. The programme also contains Tchaikovsky's Nocturne and Morceau de Concert for Cello and Orchestra, as well as an arrangement of the famous Andante cantabile from his First String Quartet. Performed together with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the baton of Andrew Manze, Moser's rendition was praised by Gramophone as "one of the finest we've had in years."
This selection contains both ADD and DDD recordings. ROMANTIC CELLO is a greatest-hits collection that offers several much-beloved nineteenth-and early twentieth-century cello works of a soaring melodic nature, performed by a veritable all-star team of cellists. There is quite a lot of variety here. The past is evoked fancifully by Peter Tchaikovsky in the courtly 'Rococo Variations' and with bittersweet nostalgia by Edward Elgar in the first movement of his moody Cello Concerto. An intense prayer is offered by Max Bruch in his 'Kol Nidrei,' and good old-fashioned heroics are supplied by Antonin Dvorak in the finale to his Cello Concerto. Doing the playing chores are Yo-Yo Ma (heard live in Saint Petersburg), Janos Starker, Ofra Harnoy, Steven Isserlis and Gregor Piatigorsky, so you know you're in good hands throughout.
Northern Flowers presents two of the cello repertoire's most beloved masterworks receive authoritative, deeply felt performances from one of Russia's most distinguished cellists in this new studio recording from Moscow's "Palace on the Yauza." The album leads with Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, written to represent the atmosphere and styles of what Tchaikovsky believed to be the less complicated age of the 18th century. The work pays homage to Mozartian classical styles throughout the series of charming variations. Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor was composed during his last year in New York City during his famous American trip, though, he wrote in the manuscript, "I finished the Concerto in New York, but when I returned home to Bohemia I changed the end completely as it stands here now." And the melodies certainly reflect the Bohemian countryside he loved so much. Together they make an ideal programme, contrasting Dvorak's sweeping Bohemian passion with the refined wit and tenderness of Tchaikovsky's tribute to the rococo era. At the centre of it all is Marina Tarasova, a winner of International Competitions in Prague, Florence and Paris and a laureate of Moscow's Tchaikovsky International Competition. Partnering her is the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra under it's principal conductor Sergey Kondrashev, a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory who trained under the legendary Mark Ermler and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
With the famous Symphony No. 6, this album contains a lesser-known part of Tchaikovsky's repertoire - the Sérenade mélancolique, with the extraordinary Leonid Kogan playing the solo violin - the Variations Rococo, with Danil Shafran playing the cello and especially the Suite No. 3 for Orchestra, a composition wrongly forgotten by the common discography of the Russian composer. This release is a tribute to one of the biggest Russian conductors of the 20th century, gathered at the top of his career.
Dvořák: Works for Cello & Orchestra / Dindo, Rustioni, Orchestra della Toscana
Dynamic
CD
$18.99Feb 17, 2023
The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was gaining international fame during the latter part of the 19th century for a string of highly successful and popular works across many genres. His Cello Concerto was premiered in London in 1896 – its symphonic character and wonderful melodic invention made the concerto one of his most beloved and frequently performed works. The Rondo, Op. 94 owes its Slavic nature to the popular melody on which it is based, while the enchanting Silent Woods and soulful Laßt mich allein! are both arrangements from previous works. The pieces on this album are performed by the award-winning cellist Enrico Dindo – praised by Rostropovich for an extraordinary sound that ‘flows as a splendid Italian voice’.
Vsevolod Zavidov (born in 2005 in Moscow) is now considered one of the most promising young pianists to emerge from the great Russian tradition. A pupil of Nelson Goerner's, he made his name on the international stage by winning the very first Radu Lupu Prize in 2024 and the UBS Young Soloists Prize in 2025. He chose to devote his first solo recording to Rachmaninoff with three transcriptions of Bach's violin pieces, the Études-Tableaux Op. 33 and the Variations on a Theme by Corelli: "Virtually unfathomable music. Not merely a composition, but an entire mythology. Interwoven with countless links to his works of every period, it is like a cipher - filled with disguises, transformations, ironies, reminiscences... yet one and the same story," says Zavidov, who concludes this colourful programme with his own magnificent transcription of the famous Vocalise from 1912.
Beethoven's oeuvre only comprises a small collection of works for cello and piano, but that the composer was an accomplished writer for this combination of instruments is evident from the fact that Jean-Louis Duport, one of Frederick II's court cellists and one of the most revered musicians of his day, incorporated many of the techniques found in the Op.5 sonatas into his instruction manual for cello. The two works each contain only two movements, and the absence of a slow movement was probably to avoid the problem of dynamic imbalance between the instruments (which would have been accentuated in adagio passages) -- something that is also the case with the Op.68 sonatas, composed in 1807. Only with the second Op.102 sonata does the composer finally replace the slow introduction, as found in No.1 and all of the above works, with a full-scale slow movement, one that precedes the massive fugal finale that was to form such an intrinsic part of Beethoven's late-period works.
Also featured are the three delightful sets of variations for cello and piano, each modelled on a different aria from Handel's opera Judas Maccabeus and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and each (just like the sonatas) placing the piano on an equal footing with the cello throughout. The works are an engaging addition to a collection that marks the return of Israeli/Dutch cellist Timora Rosler and Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz, whose previous Brilliant Classics release 'Cello Rhapsody' (9157) was released to critical acclaim, and which provides a snapshot of the composer's stylistic development over a period of nearly 20 years.
Other information: - Filling "only" two CD's, the complete works for cello and piano are quintessential and vintage Beethoven. The two youthful Opus 5 sonatas are written in virtuoso concerto style, with an especially glittering role for the piano (Beethoven was a tremendous pianist in his early years), the sonata Op. 69 is in the expansive, sonorous and deep-feeling tonal language of Beethoven's Middle-Period, whereas the two Late sonatas Op. 102 are marvels of originality, experiment, "quirkiness" and humanity. - The two musicians Timora Rosler and Klára Würtz have been playing together for more than 15 years, having won several chamber music prizes. They performed the Beethoven cycle several times in concert over the years, and their interpretation has ripened to such an extent that the time came to record it. And here it is: every note alive and vibrant, played with gusto and feeling, alternating melancholy and joy, sadness and sheer fun. - Contains notes on the music and detailed artist biographies. - Recorded 19--23 January 2013, Sala congressi del Parco naturalistico di Onara, Padua, Italy.
Since the London Symphony Orchestra's foundation in 1904, the music and spirit of Sir Edward Elgar have lived in the Orchestra's blood. Elgar conducted the LSO during it's very first 1904-5 season of concerts, and the Orchestra's first Principal Conductor, Hans Richter, was a devoted champion of the composer's music both at home and abroad. Combining a remastered collection of the LSO's finest Elgar recordings, this album demonstrates the enduring significance of the composer's work for the LSO, and showcases performances by conductors Barry Tuckwell, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Antonio Pappano. The album features critically acclaimed, award-winning recordings of Elgar's Symphonies Nos 1-3, alongside orchestral favorites including Elgar's "Enigma" Variations, Cello Concerto, Imperial March and Pomp & Circumstance Marches.
Malipiero, Ghedini, Casella: Music for Cellos and Orchestra / Shugaev, Uryupin, D. Prokofiev, Rostov Academic Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Apr 08, 2022
The composers of these 20th-century Italian works were all associated with the cello from a young age. Their deep understanding of the instrument reveals itself in three contrasting concertante pieces where soloist and orchestra collaborate to explore a wide range of colors and moods, and whose slow movements are among the most beautiful each composer ever wrote. Malipiero viewed the soloist in his concertos as a voice rising in a crowd; the mysterious and autumnal L’Olmeneta is the largest and most individual of Ghedini’s cello works; and Casella’s Notturno e tarantella is a sunny piece, expertly orchestrated.
Jongen: Works for Cello & Orchestra / Arming, Demarquette, Liege Philharmonic
Musique en Wallonie
CD
$20.99May 19, 2017
Anyone who has witnessed the welcome accorded to a national football team returning home after winning an international trophy might find it hard to believe that, not all that long ago, composers too were the object of similar popular adulation. The contest that gave rise to the most extreme transports of delight and pride was the Prix de Rome. Instituted by the Belgian government in 1841 on the model of the French prize of the same name, it was awarded every two years to young composers of under thirty. After being awarded the Prix de Rome in 1897, Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) began to compose vast works for cello and orchestra. These testify to a culture both Germanic and French which allows him to make the link between the works of Richard Strauss- whom he met in Munich- and Ernest Chausson. These three pieces are performed by the brilliant French cellist Henri Demarquette, accompanied by the Liege Royal Philharmonic- whose reputation is well known- conducted by the Austrian chef Christian Arming.
Brahms' Cello Sonata No.1 was composed at a time of great emotional upheaval in 1865. His mother was dying, and the composer having visited her in Hamburg, had immersed himself in the music of Bach for solace. The finale of the sonata has an uncanny resemblance to Contrapunctus XIII from The Art of Fugue. The second sonata is a product of the tranquil summer holiday Brahms spent in the scenic lakeside suburb of Hofstetten, outside Thun in Switzerland in 1886. The work is on a large symphonic scale in four movements, and in contrast to the earlier sonata's pensive and unsettled nature, is bathed in afternoon sunlight. Stanford composed his Ballata and it's companion, the Ballabile in 1918 for cello and orchestra. This is the product of the end of his compositional career, after his 7th and final symphony, and the large scale concertos. Effectively a cello concerto minus a first movement, Stanford made the version for cello and piano the same year. The Ballata is a delightful slow movement.
