Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Hot Rococo

Tchaikovsky wrote his eight-part “Variations on a Rococo Theme” in 1877, modeling its style after Mozart. The Russian composer penned the piece for — and was aided by — Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, a German cellist and fellow professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Fitzenhagen fussed with the details of what he considered “his” composition, reshuffling the order and deleting one variation in what eventually became standard performance emendations. Since then, scholars have reconstructed Tchaikovsky’s original version. Here to play it is a more recent product of the Moscow Conservatory: 25-year-old virtuoso Sergey Antonov (pictured), who in 2007 became one of the youngest cellists ever to win a gold medal at the 13th International Tchaikovsky Competition. Antonov salutes the revivified “Variations” with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra in a Lane Series concert.