Extreme Make-over consists of a number of musical metamorphoses on a theme from Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s well-known Andante cantabile (the second movement of his String Quartet No. 1 in D, Op. 11, written in 1871).

“Never in my life have I felt so flattered, never have I been so proud of my creative powers as when Lev Tolstoy sat in the chair next to mine listening to my Andante, and the tears ran down his cheeks,” wrote the composer in the winter of 1876 on the occasion of a special concer...