In autumn 1885 Sergey Rachmaninoff moved to Moscow and lived in the private boarding school (musical pension) of Nikolai Zverev, a well-known pedagogue and professor of the Moscow Conservatory. At the same time Rachmaninoff was admitted to the third year of the junior division of the Moscow Conservatory in Zverev's class.
Rachmaninoff spent four years in Zverev's boarding school, where strict discipline required pupils to rise early and practice six hours a day, and where attending opera performances and ensemble music-making (including on several pianos) was mandatory. In the summer of 1886 Zverev and his pupils, including the thirteen-year-old Rachmaninoff, stayed at the Oлеiz estate in Koreiz (Crimea), where Rachmaninoff composed his first nocturne. After four years a quarrel occurred between Rachmaninoff and Zverev, and Rachmaninoff left the boarding school while remaining in Moscow.
Rachmaninoff later spoke to Marietta Shaginyan about Zverev, saying: "He was a wonderful man. I owe him the best that is in me."
