Tchaikovsky
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Aleksandr Ziloti (1863–1945)

Aleksandr Ziloti

Ukrainian pianist, conductor and teacher (b, 27 September/9 October 1863 near Kharkov; d. 8 December 1945 in New York), born Aleksandr Il'ich Ziloti (Александр Ильич Зилоти, Aleksandr Il'ič Ziloti, Alexander Ilyich Ziloti); also known outside Russia as Alexander Siloti.

Aleksandr was the son of Il'ia Ziloti and his wife Iuliia Arkad'evna (b. Rakhmaninova, 1835–1925) Through his maternal line, Aleksandr was a first cousin to the composer and pianist Sergei Rakhmaninov.

Ziloti graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1882, having studied for seven years under Nikolai Rubinstein, Sergei Taneev, Nikolai Hubert, and also attended Tchaikovsky's classes in harmony. From 1883 to 1886 he worked with Franz Liszt at Weimar, before returning to Moscow as professor of piano at the Conservatory (1888–1891), where his students included his cousin Sergei Rakhmaninov. He left the conservatory in 1891 and spent the next eight years touring in Russia, western Europe and North America.

In 1887 Ziloti married Vera Pavlovna Tret'iakova (1866–1940), daughter of the Russian businessman and art collector Pavel Tret'iakov (1832–1898) and a cousin of Tchaikovsky's sister-in-law Praskov'ia. Ziloti was a strong advocate of Tchaikovsky's music, which he often performed in Europe and America. The composer entrusted Ziloti with the proof-reading of his works, and making piano arrangements of his compositions (such as the ballet The Sleeping Beauty). After Tchaikovsky's death, Ziloti published his own versions of the Piano Concerto No. 1, Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Sonata in C♯ minor, and an orchestral suite from the ballet The Sleeping Beauty.

Ziloti returned to Russia in 1901 as director of the Moscow Philharmonic Society (1901–02), and between 1903 and 1917 he organised his own influential series of symphonic and chamber concerts in Saint Petersburg. He fled Russia after the revolution, settling first in England and before becoming a United States citizen in 1921. From 1925 to 1942 he taught at the Julliard Graduate School, while still performing occasional recitals.

Tchaikovsky's works dedicated to Aleksandr Ziloti:

• Scherzo-fantaisie—No. 10 of the Eighteen Pieces, Op. 72 (1893).

Tchaikovsky's correspondence with Aleksandr Ziloti:

• 67 letters from Tchaikovsky to Aleksandr Ziloti have survived, dating from 1886 to 1893.