A nephew of Alexander Sergeyevich Taneyev, Taneyev was a pupil of Tchaikovsky at the Moscow Conservatory, studying the piano with the director of the Conservatory, Nikolay Rubinstein. He was the soloist in the first Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a rôle he repeated in later works by Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra. He gradually assumed fuller responsibility at the Conservatory, of which he became director in 1885. His pupils included Scriabin and Rachmaninov.

Orchestral Music

Taneyev’s orchestral music includes four symphonies and a suite de concert for violin and orchestra.