Nina Milkina

Born: 27 January, 1919, in Moscow. Died: 29 November, 2006, in London, aged 87.

NINA Milkina was a pianist with an exceptionally broad repertoire who brought to all her interpretations a sensitivity and vivacity that marked her out as something exceptional. She was much respected and admired by other pianists and was often referred to as "the musician's musician". Part of this admiration stemmed from her renown as a composer but her rock-solid technique was acclaimed for almost 50 years. Her recording legacy confirms her undoubted brilliance as a performer.

Nina Milkina was the daughter of an acknowledged portraitist and was brought up in Moscow in the years after the 1917 Revolution. The family left Russia in 1926 and settled in Paris where Milkina took piano lessons, showing a prodigious talent. She was taught composition by Glazunov and at the age of ten gave a recital for Sergei Rachmaninoff who warmly congratulated her. A year later, she made her public debut as a soloist at a concert in Paris.

The family went to live in London where Milkina continued her studies and slowly became a recognised name in musical circles. She toured widely throughout the war giving concerts to the troops - twice visiting Scapa Flow - and was a regular soloist at the famous recitals organised by Dame Myra Hess at the National Gallery in London. It was while playing at such a concert in Bournemouth that Milkina met Alastair Sedgwick, whom she later married.

In 1946, Milkina was one of the first artists to perform with the newly started BBC Third Programme. She was commissioned to play the complete piano sonatas of Mozart in an acclaimed weekly series.

It was with Mozart with whom she became principally associated in Scotland. She made no fewer than 16 appearances with the Scottish National Orchestra between 1951 and 1978. Milkina also played Beethoven and Schumann concertos - mostly conducted by Alexander Gibson. Milkina first came to the Edinburgh Festival in 1951 and in 1953 gave the Mozart celebratory recital commemorating the composer's bicentenary in the Freemasons' Hall, much of it performed on the pianoforte.

In 1956, she gave an all-Mozart recital in the same venue and closed the Festival with a rarely heard work by Richard Strauss. Milkina accompanied the actor Sebastian Shaw in Strauss's setting of Tennyson's poem Enoch Arden. The following year, she played Beethoven's first concerto with the BBC Scottish Orchestra under Ian Whyte. Her final appearance at the Festival was in 1966 with the Ormonte String Trio.

Mr Sedgwick is half Scottish, and the pair returned north to visit family near Glasgow when Milkina was here for a series of concerts. On one such occasion Mr Sedgwick tried to teach the pianist fly-fishing on a burn near Loch Lomond. "Not," he told The Scotsman, "with much success. But we both loved being north and walking the hills."

Milkina was one of the musical pioneers that refocused attention on much of the (then) seldom performed Mozart repertory. She championed lesser-known early piano concertos and sonatas both in the concert hall and studio. Her recordings are indeed a fitting legacy for such a distinguished artist. Apart from Mozart, Milkina made acclaimed recordings of Chopin and Scarlatti.

Milkina and the pianist Sir Clifford Curzon were neighbours and they used to rehearse with their windows open - to the delight of other neighbours. At Curzon's memorial service Milkina gave a grippingly haunting account of Mozart's B Minor Adagio.

Milkina was a charming and attractive artist whose bright eyes and cheerful personality brought a definite ease of manner to her stage appearance and playing. She is survived by her husband and their children.