It is clear from the title page of the handwritten piano score that Tchaikovsky’s popular Variations on a Rococo Theme Op. 33 can be performed with orchestral or piano accompaniment only. The recording with Sergei Istomin uses the handwritten copy of the original piano score with the cello part, which contains numerous informative entries by the composer. Also in the piano trio recorded here, Claire Chevallier plays in proper style on a grand piano made by the St. Petersburg company Jacob Becker in 1877, whose instruments Tchaikovsky has demonstrably highly valued.

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