Taneyev, Sergey

Sergei Taneyev

String Quartet No. 3 Op. 7
Dedicated to Sergey Rachmaninov

(b. Wladimir, 25. November 1856 – d. Moskau, 19. Juni 1915)

Preface
The youngest of three sons, Sergey Taneyev delighted his father Ivan Il’yich, an amateur violinist, pianist, and guitarist, with his precocious musical talent. While Ivan struggled to make his wife and two older sons enjoy the compulsory daily music-making sessions, Sergey was eager to play duets with his father. The only drawback was that his first piano teacher categorically forbade him even to listen to his father’s playing, let alone play with him. She was afraid that Ivan Il’yich’s haphazard and unmusical approach would have a detrimental effect on Sergey’s musical education. Her decision proved to be right, and preserved Taneyev from developing a vehement hatred for music for the rest of his life – the fate that befell his older brother, Vladimir. What is more, Sergey Taneyev became a monumental figure in Russian music of the second half of the nineteenth century, whose significance as a performer, composer, theorist, and a pedagogue is only beginning to be discovered in the West. A pupil of Nikolay Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, and a teacher of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, Taneyev emerges as a link between these generations that is yet to be properly examined and evaluated. Taneyev was a devout scholar of counterpoint and early music; a passionate promoter of Esperanto in Russia; a scholar of ancient Greek history and literature; an owner of brilliant mind always ready to fire a joke or a punt; a closet Wagnerain; and an object of Sof’ya Tolstaya’s unrequited love.

Taneyev spent most of his creative life in Tchaikovsky’s shadow, first as a pupil, and later as a colleague. Tchaikovsky’s favourite student, Taneyev gradually became one of his most objective critics and closest friends, their friendship lasting until Tchaikovsky’s death. Taneyev often commented on Tchaikovsky’s music, and in many cases his opinion was more important to the older composer than that of any other musician. In turn, Taneyev was grateful for the criticism and advice from his senior colleague. Yet those who expected him to write in the same expansive way as his teacher were disappointed to find a different kind of expressive language, one characterized by noble gravitas and technical solidity.

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