The present edition is based on all relevant sources. The preface sketches the work's genesis from the moment of its conception in Rome in late December 1879 ("Yesterday, out in the streets, I heard a wonderful folksong that I will most certainly make use of.") to the first reviews, in which Tchaikovsky was accused of "triviality" and of having made an "extremely unfortunate" choice of themes.

Yet this did nothing to hamper the worldwide success of the work, and Tchaikovsky's composer colleag...