Award-winning pianist Lance Coburn has been schooled in and inspired by the Russian pianistic tradition, and sees this ‘potpourri’ of rarities as something akin to a snapshot of Tchaikovsky’s more famous works. Ranging from wistful sentiment to fiery complexity, the Theme with Variations comes from Tchaikovsky’s period of studies at the St Petersburg Conservatory, while the transcriptions include a medley of themes rescued from the early opera Voyevoda, the emotionally charged Aveu passionné, and a Coronation March that the composer described as ‘noisy but bad’.