Editing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (section)

===Dedicatees and collaborators===
[[File:Marius Ivanovich Petipa -Feb. 14 1898.JPG|thumb|Marius Petipa {{Circa|1890–1895}}]]
Tchaikovsky's relationship with collaborators was mixed. Like Nikolai Rubinstein with the First Piano Concerto, virtuoso and pedagogue [[Leopold Auer]] rejected the Violin Concerto initially but changed his mind; he played it to great public success and taught it to his students, who included [[Jascha Heifetz]] and [[Nathan Milstein]].<ref>Steinberg, ''Concerto'', 486</ref> [[Wilhelm Fitzenhagen]] "intervened considerably in shaping what he considered 'his' piece", the ''Variations on a Rococo Theme'', according to music critic [[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Michael Steinberg]]. Tchaikovsky was angered by Fitzenhagen's license but did nothing; the Rococo Variations were published with the cellist's amendments.<ref>Brown, ''The Crisis Years'', 122.</ref>{{refn|The composer's original has since been published but most cellists still perform Fitzenhagen's version (Campbell, 77).|group=n}}

His collaboration on the three ballets went better and in [[Marius Petipa]], who worked with him on the last two, he might have found an advocate.{{refn|Tchaikovsky's work with Julius Reisinger on ''Swan Lake'' was evidently also successful, since it left him with no qualms about working with Petipa, but very little is written about it (Maes, 146).|group=n}} When ''The Sleeping Beauty'' was seen by its dancers as needlessly complicated, Petipa convinced them to put in the extra effort. Tchaikovsky compromised to make his music as practical as possible for the dancers and was accorded more creative freedom than ballet composers were usually accorded at the time. He responded with scores that minimized the rhythmic subtleties normally present in his work but were inventive and rich in melody, with more refined and imaginative orchestration than in the average ballet score.<ref>Maes, 145–148.</ref>