Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1915) is an exceptional figure in 19th-century Russian music. He had nothing in common with the Russian National School. Taneyev's abstract approach to composing was in stark contrast to the outbursts of emotion that we encounter in many of his contemporaries. People tend to call him the Russian Brahms, were it not for Taneyev's disapproval of his music. Taneyev was a composition student of Tchaikovsky and, as a pianist, provided the premieres of Tchaikovsky's works for piano and orchestra. A close friendship developed between the two, which would last until Tchaikovsky's death, despite the sincerity with which Taneyev was one of the few in the Tchaikovsky area to dare to criticize his work.

This disc juxtaposes two significant Russian works for violin and orchestra, each written by a composer with a close relationship to Tchaikovsky, and each dedicated to the great violinist and pedagogue Leopold Auer. These two concertos are both formidable display pieces, designed to show off Auer’s transcendental technique. Ilya Gringolts, acclaimed as one of the great young violin virtuosos of today and lauded for his debut recording on Hyperion, dazzles in this repertoire, ably supported by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov.

Lydia Mordkovitch and the then Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi were a celebrated team in the 1980s, recording many notable Russian works, including the concertos by Khachaturian, Prokofiev and Shostakovich for Chandos, and winning a Gramophone Award. This ‘team’ has recently re-assembled to record little-known concertante works by Taneyev and Rimsky Korsakov. The unusual coupling of works by Taneyev and Rimsky-Korsakov, two great composer friends, neatly symbolises the era of the last decades of nineteenth-century Russia, with its great conservatories in Moscow and St Petersburg exerting enormous influence on the music of the country at the time.

Firma Melodiya presents a rarity of Russian chamber music, string quartets by Sergei Taneyev performed by Lubotsky Trio. In the early 20th century, they called Taneyev “musical conscience of Moscow.” Tchaikovsky’s best student and friend, the first recipient of the Big Gold Medal of the Moscow Conservatory, and a teacher of Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and other famous composers, Taneyev proved to be an outstanding pianist, composer, educator and music theorist. A true master of polyphonic composition and a fine ensemble performer, Taneyev devoted special attention to thematic development, vibrant voiceleading, subtle palette of strokes, and sought to find an ideal balance between emotional and rational in music. The chamber and instrumental genres were perhaps the ones that answered his artistic demands to the greatest extent. Two string trios – E flat major, Op. 31, and B minor (no opus) – on this album belong to the 1910’s, the last period of Taneyev’s life. The latter one remained unfinished and was published many years after the composer’s death. The recording was made in Germany in 2015, the year of the 100th anniversary of the prominent Russian composer’s death.

The Carpe Diem String Quartet’s first volume of Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev’s string quartets (Nos. 1 & 3 – 8.570437) gained critical accolades both for the revival of this important repertoire and for the ensemble’s sensitive and assured interpretations. A gift to musicians and listeners in search of rewarding new repertoire, Taneyev’s Second and Fourth String Quartets are masterfully crafted, the former piece possessing the inner energy of Beethoven, the latter being his most dramatic quartet. Both quartets impress with their unexpected harmonic combinations, wealth of ideas and mastery of form.

There is a wonderfully vivid, pictorial quality to Tchaikovsky's colourful music. Soon after Tchaikovsky completed his ballet, The Nutcracker, Taneyev made a piano transcription of the entire work. When he finished his transcription, he gave it to Tchaikovsky. Taneyev may have thought about using this transcription for ballet practice and that he intended to try to capture all the sounds of the original piece when arranging it. But the overt frankness with which Taneyev reacted to Tchaikovsky's works made the composer nervous lot and they are often particularly dissatisfied with each other.