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He was a brilliant pianist, a distinctive composer, a theorist and eminent teacher, and dubbed by Tchaikovsky as the Russian Bach. Donald Macleod, with Dr Anastasia Belina-Johnson, explores the life and music of Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev.

Taneyev had inherited a keen interest in Greek mythology from his father. It is no surprise that his only opera set Aeschylus's tragic trilogy, The Oresteia. Tchaikovsky could not understand why Taneyev would write an opera on such a theme, something he thought was far removed from the everyday Russian person. The opera failed to enter into the permanent repertoire.

Taneyev was now exceptionally busy as a teacher at the Moscow Conservatoire. At the age of twenty-nine, he was invited to become the institution's Director and went on to not only raise academic standards, but save it from financial ruin. Composing had to be fitted into the summer months and his opera took many years to complete. It was Tchaikovsky who secured a performance date for Taneyev's stagework, forcing the composer to complete it. During this period Taneyev did find time to compose some smaller works, such as his present for Tchaikovsky's birthday, a little piece for piano four hands, quoting a number of Tchaikovsky's own works.

Canzona
Stanislav Jankovsky, clarinet
Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sanderling, conductor

String Quartet in A major (3rd mvt)
The Leningrad Taneiev Quartet

Overture, The Oresteia, Op 6
The Philharmonia
Neeme Jarvi, conductor

The Composer's Birthday, for piano four hands
Joseph Banowetz, piano
Adam Wodnicki, piano

The Oresteia (Act III Scene III)
Ludmilla Ganestova, soprano (Pallas Athene)
Ivan Dubrovin, tenor (Orestes)
Chorus of the Belorussian State Opera and Ballet Theatre
Orchestra of the Belorussian State Opera and Ballet Theatre
Tatiana Kolomizheva, conductor

Producer: Luke Whitlock.