Tchaikovsky
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Sergei Taneev

Sergei Ivanovich Taneev (Сергей Иванович Танеев) was a Russian composer, musicologist, teacher, pianist and conductor, born at Vladimir, Russia, on 13/25 November 1856.

The youngest son of Ivan Il'ich Taneev (1796-1870), a state councilor, physician and amateur musician, and his wife Varvara Pavlovna (1822-1889), Sergei began taking piano lessons at the age of five. In 1866, aged just nine, he enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory, studying piano first under Eduard Langer, and then Nikolai Rubinstein. In 1871 he joined Tchaikovsky's composition class, and his outstanding ability earned the admiration of his tutor, and they remained good friends after Taneev graduated in 1875 he graduated with gold medals in piano and composition. The former student went on to succeed Tchaikovsky as professor of harmony at the conservatory (1878-1905), and also later served as its director (1885-1889). Throughout his life he continued to compose, and also produced a two-volume treatise on counterpoint (1909).

Tchaikovsky dedicated his orchestral fantasia Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 (1876) to Sergei Taneev, and the latter returned the compliment with the dedication of his own String Quartet in B♭ minor (1890). The manuscript of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23 (1874-75) contains an insciption to Taneev (who gave one of the earliest performances of the work). although this was struck out in favour of the eventual dedicatee, Hans von Bülow.

In 1882 Taneev gave the first Russian performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 44 in Moscow, and the first ever performances of the solo parts in the Concert Fantasia, Op. 56 (Moscow, 1885), Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 75 (Saint Petersburg, 1895), and Andante & Finale (Saint Petersburg, 1896). Taneev also made transcriptions of a number of Tchaikovsky's works, including piano duet versions of the Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 (1877), the Symphony No. 5, Op. 64 (1888), the opera Iolanta, Op. 68 (1891), and the ballet The Nutcracker, Op. 71 (1891-92), as well as orchestral arrangements of some of Tchaikovsky's songs.

After Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, Taneev was entrusted by Modest Tchaikovsky to complete a number of works left unfinished: the duet scena for an opera on Romeo and Juliet, the Andante & Finale for piano and orchestra, Op. 79, and the piano piece Momento lirico (unaware that the latter work had already been published in a completed form as the Moment lyrique).

Taneev was also active in founding the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at Klin in 1895, and after his own death from pneumonia on 6/19 June 1915 at Diudkovo (near Zvenigorod), aged 59, Taneev's manuscripts were bequeathed to the Klin archive.