Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951) was a Russian composer and pianist, a close friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff — who called him «the greatest composer of our time». Medtner set poetry by Goethe, Pushkin and Lermontov, and made the piano tale, or skazka, a genre distinctly his own: music full of sensuous harmonies and unexpected turns, inviting the listener into a world of memories, dreams and deeply felt emotions. In 1935 he settled in London, spending his final years in Britain; in 1928 he became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.