Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (; 5 January 1880 – 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and pianist. A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include 14 piano sonatas, three violin sonatas, three piano concerti, a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works for vocalise. His 38 Skazki (generally known as “Fairy Tales” in English but more correctly translated as “Tales”) for piano solo contain some of his most original music. Biography Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow on 24 December 1879, according to the Julian calendar, or 5 January 1880 by the Gregorian calendar. He was the son of Karl Petrovich Medtner (1846–1921) and Alexandra Karlovna Goedicke (1843–1918), and the fifth of their six children. Both of them were of German origin. Medtner took piano lessons from his mother until the age of ten. He also had lessons from his mother’s brother, Fyodor Goedicke (the father of his more famous cousin Alexander Goedicke). He entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1