Alexander Gretchaninov

Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov (1864 - 1956) was a Russian Romantic composer. Gretchaninov started his musical studies rather late because his father, a businessman, had expected the boy to take over the family firm. Gretchaninov himself related that he did not see a piano until he was 14 and began his studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1881 against his father's wishes and without his knowledge.