Guest
The teacher of Nikolai Medner, Alexander Goldenweiser and Konstantin Igumnov, Paul Pabst was born in Germany in 1854. He began his studies with his father and then with Anton Door before going on to Franz Liszt. In 1878, Pabst captured the attention of Nikolai Rubinstein who invited him to join the piano faculty at the Moscow Conservatory. He was elevated to professor of high degree in 1881 joining Taneyev and Safonov. Pabst remained in that position until his death in 1897. His compositions include a piano concerto and a trio dedicated to the memory of Anton Rubinstein. But Pabst is best remembered today by his transcriptions of Tchaikovskys music. These paraphrases evidently delighted the composer who in turn dedicated his Polacca de Concert no.7 to Pabst. There is one extant letter written by Tchaikovsky to Pabst. This recording is not a complete performance of the paraphrase. It comes to an abrupt end because there was no more room left on the cylinder!
