Anton Arensky

Anton Arensky (1861–1906) was a Russian composer, pianist and teacher whose music, long overshadowed, has enjoyed a steady revival. A pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory, he went on to teach at the Moscow Conservatory, where his own students included Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Glière. His style sits attractively between the cosmopolitan lyricism of his idol Tchaikovsky and the nationalist colour of the Russian school, and at its best (in the Piano Trio in D minor, the Second String Quartet and the famous Variations drawn from it) it has a melodic warmth and elegance all its own. Rimsky-Korsakov rather cruelly predicted that Arensky would be quickly forgotten, and blamed gambling and drink for his failing health; he died of tuberculosis at only forty-four. But the finest of his music has outlasted that gloomy forecast and holds a secure place in the repertoire.