Soloviev, Nikolai Feopemptovich (1846–1916)

Russian composer and music critic. In 1875 his opera Vakula the Smith lost to Tchiakovsky's entry in a competition, but some members of the jury apparently preferred Soloviev's work. He was highly critical of Tchiakovsky as well as the nationalist composers Vladimir Stasov and César Cui.

He began by studying medicine, but turned to music and entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, where his teachers included Nikolai Zaremba (1821–1879). He became a professor there himself in 1874. In 1871 the dying Alexander Serov charged him with the orchestration of his opera The Power of Evil. He was also a critic and collector of folk songs.

Works Opera Cordelia (after Sardou's La Haine, 1885), Vakula the Smith (on Gogol's Christmas Eve, 1875), and The Cottage of Kolomua.

Choral and orchestral cantata for the bicentenary of Peter the Great; symphonic poem Russians and Mongols, a fantasy on a folk song for orchestra.

Other piano pieces; songs.