Nicolai Soloviev



Nicolai Feopemptovich Soloviev (Russian: Никола́й Феопе́мптович Соловьёв; Petrozavodsk, 9 May [O.S. 27 April] 1846 – 27 December [O.S. 14 December] 1916 in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg)), sometimes Solovyov, was a Russian music critic, composer, and teacher at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His notable composition students include Samuel Maykapar, Mihkel Lüdig, Artur Lemba, and Peeter Süda. Soloviev composed several operas, an overture, and the symphonic poem Russians and Mongols, and assisted in the completion of Alexander Serov's opera, The Power of the Fiend.

As a music critic, Soloviev supported the works of composers such as Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, while trouncing the work of other composers. Of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto he wrote, "Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, like the first pancake, is a flop."