The work underwent considerable revision[2] before its premiere on 30 October at a quartet concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow.
47:00 The variations are as follows: The Pezzo elegiaco is a darkly brooding and rather conventional romantic first movement with a beautiful opening cello solo with a theme that returns for a final funeral march.
After working itself into more and more ecstatic heights culminating with the final variation, it suddenly goes through a surprising modulation to the original minor key, and the theme from the first movement returns with an even greater gravity, and the entire piece concludes with yet another death march.
I won't hide from you the great effort of will required to set down my musical ideas in this new and unusual form.
[2] Taneyev, the cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen and the violinist Jan Hřímalý were given access to the score, and they made a number of suggestions for improvement, which Tchaikovsky accepted.
[2] A private performance with the above-named soloists was held at the Moscow Conservatory on 23 March, the first anniversary of Nikolai Rubinstein's death, while Tchaikovsky was in Italy.
[2] The work was performed during Tchaikovsky's visit to the United States in 1891, at a reception for the composer at the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C.[4] Music from the second movement was used for John Taras' 1948 ballet Designs with Strings.