Is introduced to Siloti, a former Liszt student and central character of the musical life of Saint Petersburg before the Revolution. Siloti agrees to oversee his musical education on the condition that his parents do not exploit him as a child prodigy. Siloti’s daughter Kyriena takes him to Rachmaninoff’s where he plays one of the little Beethoven Sonatas Op. 49 and receives encouragement from the great musician.

With Alexander Siloti in 1932