Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Wow! - photo I came across (and can you guess who's in it)

I entered Zverev’s home with a heavy heart and foreboding, having heard tell of his severity and ‘heavy hand’, which he had no qualms of resorting to. Indeed, we were able to witness proof of this latter: Zverev had a temper, and could launch himself at a person fists flailing, or hurl some object at the offender. I myself had been the object of his fury on three or four occasions…

But all other talk of his exacting and severe manner were false. This was a man of rare intellect, generosity and kindness. He commanded a great deal of respect among the best people of his time.

Indeed, discipline entered my life. God forbid that I leave the piano five minutes before my time of three hours was up! Or one uncompleted note – such cases were capable of stirring him up into a fearsome temper. However, all our achievements and diligence paid off: he drove us, his pupils, to various houses with concerts. When I finished playing, Zverev said: “Now that is how one should play the piano!”

The impression was that he was quite mad about us, his pupils. He never took a single coin from us as payment: neither for lessons, nor for board (after all, we lived in his house). He dressed us at the best tailors, we never missed a premiere at Moscow theatres – musical or drama. Of course, no really good concert went unnoticed. And that was a time when there was so much on offer: take the famous historical concerts of Anton Rubinstein, where we had an opportunity to hear all that was the greatest!

Zverev never limited himself to bringing us up as pianists. He did his best to generally give us a good all-round upbringing. He was deeply interested in the kind of reading we did

Pandoraselfridge ?

Interesting how the 'six-and-a-half-foot scowl' was already present even at such a tender age, long before he was 6 1/2 ft and when he was still capable of smiling......

The youth standing behind Zverev on his near left (i.e., near right as you're looking at it) looks like a young Rachmaninov, and the youth sitting on his near left looks like a young Prokofiev -- is that correct?

.....Boy, was I wrong....

Well, then -- my alternative (which I was going to post before, but didn't) was Alexander Scriabin, standing on the far left (far right as you look at it). Correct?

Most of the students are far too young to be able to do more than wild guessing because they look little like the adult pictures we're used to seeing. Even with the list of his famous pupils I have little idea except for Rachmaninov because of his height.

That's obviously Pressman sitting on the far right.

....This is one of my all-time favorite photographs but I've refrained from commenting because, well, you know. I do think your clue comes dangerously close to spilling the beans, though.

Well, I also tracked it down - from left to right:

Samuelson, Scriabin, Maximov, The Z Man, Rachmaninoff, Chernayev, Keneman, Pressman