A nephew of Alexander Sergeyevich Taneyev, Sergey Ivanovich 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 role 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.

Chamber Music
Although later works remained unfinished, Taneyev completed six string quartets, two string quintets, two piano quintets and a piano trio. His music is always well crafted, relying on his study of counterpoint; and, while it is Russian, it is also representative of the more cosmopolitan tradition that the conservatories had fostered.