Works for violin and piano occupy a special place in the compositional output of Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951). He wrote a large number of pieces for piano and voice. Where his chamber music is concerned, however, his emphasis was on the genre of the violin sonata. Medtner wrote three sonatas for violin and piano. They are written, like his one great piano quintet, on an almost symphonic scale. There are also the pieces for violin and piano that Medtner produced while he was working on a violin sonata.

Nikita Boriso-Glebsky's rise to prominence came in 2010 when he won the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition and the International Fritz Kreisler Violin competition. He has also been awarded top prizes in the prestigious violin contests including the Tchaikovsky, the Queen Elisabeth, and the Monte Carlo Violin Masters competitions. The violinist has performed with many major orchestras, including the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and many others, under conductors Valery Gergiev, Sakari Oramo, Hannu Lintu, Vladimir Fedoseev, Gilbert Varga.

Ekaterina Derzhavina studied in Moscow with Juri Polunin, Valeria Polunina and Vladimir Tropp. In 1989 she won third prize at the All-Russian Piano Competition and was also awarded the special prize for the best interpretation of a Romantic piano work. Her concert career has taken her beyond her native Russia throughout Europe, to the USA, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.