Tchaikovsky - Cello Concerto, TH 249 (Piano Reduction and Solo Part)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky intended to write a cello concerto in early 1891, but left only a sixty-bar sketch among the manuscripts for the Pathétique Symphony. In the early 2000s, Ukrainian-American cellist Yuriy Leonovich developed this fragment into a three-movement concerto of about thirty minutes. The sketch materials and other unfinished ideas were provided by Tchaikovsky scholar Brett Langston, who also served as a sounding board during the initial draft, completed in 2006. Leonovich continued refining the score in 2013, 2016, and 2021, shaping a cohesive concerto available with orchestra or with piano.

The first movement grows out of Tchaikovsky’s B minor sketch, with all orchestration, the second theme, and the music beyond the first theme group composed by Leonovich. The second movement draws on the projected slow movement of the Third Piano Concerto, also known through Semyon Bogatyrev’s E-flat major symphony reconstruction. The finale incorporates two themes: the popular tune “винный наш колодезь” (“Our wine cellar”), used by Tchaikovsky in the opera Oprichnik, and a theme intended for a projected cello sonata. The coda loosely follows the planned ending of the Third Piano Concerto.

This package includes the solo cello part with piano reduction. The full orchestral score and orchestra parts are sold separately. Substantial, lyrical, and technically demanding, this concerto is well suited for advanced and professional cellists looking for a large-scale Romantic work rooted in Tchaikovsky’s unfinished ideas and brought into full concert form.

ASTA level: 5