Tchaikovsky's Cello Concerto

[Mark Thomas]

Here's something intriguing. No, it's not the Rococo Variations, but a fully-fledged Cello Concerto about which Tchaikovsky had been thinking in the last months of his life. All that remains is a 60 bar sketch. Not much to go on, but that hasn't deterred Yuriy Leonovich from "completing" the work. As far as I can tell, from reading his article on the piece, the finished product is mostly Leonovich, with Tchaikovsky restricted to materials mined from the 60 bar sketch, the sketch for the slow movement of the original Sixth Symphony which Bogatyryev used to rebuild it as the "Seventh" and an unused sketch for a project Cello Sonata.

Ha anybody ever heard this "completion" performed or know anything else about it?

[TerraEpon]

Huh, I could have sworn there was an Mp3 of a synth version of the completion available, but I can't find it.

[Hovite]

All that remains is a 60 bar sketch. Not much to go on, but that hasn't deterred Yuriy Leonovich from "completing" the work.

I haven't heard it, but I would like to too. The fact is, some of these somewhat spurious completions are better than anything else that is currently being written. Elgar's Symphony No. 3 contains some real Elgar and works well enough, and Albinoni's Adagio is popular even though (or maybe because) it contains no Albinoni. I have a recording of an unbegun mass by Bruckner, and Mozart's unfinished requiem is famous.

[edurban]

Whatever the merits of this 'Tschaikovsky' concerto, you have to admire Mr. Leonovich's energy:

By the age of 18 I had written thirty cello concertos of my own

Lord save us!

David

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, it was at that point that I began to wonder whether I should read on...