Eduard Langer

Eduard Leopoldovich (Leontyevich) Langer ( – ) was a Russian and Swiss pianist, teacher, and composer. He wrote a string quartet, piano trio, and two sonatas for violin and piano. He taught at the Russian Musical Society and Moscow Conservatory from 1860 until his death.

Langer is best known for arranging many of Tchaikovsky's works for piano. Tchaikovsky dedicated his Capriccioso from Six Pieces, Op. 19 to him in 1873.

Early life and education Langer was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1835. His father (1802–1885) was a Swiss German organist. He began studying music as a child under his father's guidance. His most notable students include the renowned virtuoso teacher Karl Kipp, composer Sergei Taneyev, cellist Anatoliy Brandukov, and Antonina Miliukova, who later married Tchaikovsky.

Langer transcribed the orchestral and symphonic works of Russian composers including Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Anton Arensky, and Nikolai Rubinstein for piano in two, four, and eight hands. His most notable transcriptions are those of Tchaikovsky, his friend and colleague at the conservatory who dedicated his Capriccioso (op. 19 no. 5) to Langer in 1873.

Two letters sent from Tchaikovsky survive, one from April 1880 in Saint Petersburg and another from September 1880 in Kamenka, Russia. In the latter, Tchaikovsky asks for his aid in republishing 4-hand arrangements of Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 3, and The Tempest.

He was a Lutheran. He began playing organ at Protestant churches in Moscow in 1855.