Andante cantabile for cello and string orchestra

Written in 1871, seven years before Eugene Onegin and five years before Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet was one of his earliest successes. The second movement, headed Andante cantabile, proved to be a particular favourite. It still is, not least because of the quality of the melody with which it begins, a Ukranian folk song Tchaikovsky collected on his sister’s estate at Kamenka. The contrasting material is not without its attractions either. The piece exists in all kinds of arrangements but there is only one by Tchaikovsky himself, a highly effective version for solo cello and string orchestra.