Tchaikovsky And The Cello
Instead of using Popper’s studies as a way to work intensively on our thumbposition, we can also choose to work on repertoire excerpts. Here below is a link to an extensive compilation of repertoire passages in thumbposition from the music of Tchaikovsky.
Many of the passages compiled here come from his “Rococo Variations”. For these, the source used was Wilhelm Fitzenhagen’s version rather than Tchaikovsky’s original version. Here below are links to two articles about the history of Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations”. The second article, by the cellist and scholar Sergei Istomin, goes into greater detail and makes a detailed comparison between Tchaikovsky’s original version and Fitzenhagen’s “improved” version.
For further discussion on the theme of “urtext versus improved versions” click on the highlighted link.