Eduard Langer

Eduard Leopoldovich (Leontyevich) Langer (21 April [3 May] 1835, Moscow – 24 April 1905, Moscow) was a Russian musician, composer, pianist, and teacher closely associated with Moscow’s leading musical institutions of the late 19th century. He was born in Moscow into the family of the German musician and pedagogue Leopold Langer and began his musical studies under his father’s guidance.

From 1851 to 1853 Langer studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he took piano with Ignaz Moscheles and Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel and studied composition with Moritz Hauptmann and Julius Rietz. After returning to Russia he devoted himself primarily to pedagogical work while also maintaining an active profile as a performing pianist.

In 1860 Nikolai Rubinstein invited Langer to teach piano and music theory in the music classes of the Moscow branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, and from 1866 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, serving there until 1905 and becoming a professor. Between 1885 and 1890 he headed the organ class. In August 1893 he temporarily transferred to the Musical and Dramatic School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, but returned to the conservatory in April 1894.

Langer taught a number of notable musicians, including Sergei Taneyev and Antonina Milyukova (the wife of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), and he also counted Alexander Brandukov among his pupils. He was friends with Karl Klindworth, sharing with him a strong admiration for Richard Wagner, and he was also close to Tchaikovsky, who dedicated to Langer the “Capriccioso” for piano, Op. 19 No. 5.

Alongside his teaching and performance activities, Langer produced numerous piano arrangements for 2, 4, and 8 hands, including transcriptions of symphonic and operatic works by Tchaikovsky, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Anton Arensky, and Nikolai Rubinstein. His own compositions include a string quartet, a piano trio, and two sonatas for violin and piano. He died in Moscow on 24 April (7 May) 1905.

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