Hamish Milne has died at the age of 80. Best known for his advocacy of the music of Nikolai Medtner, Milne’s discography was broad and adventurous: as well as many recordings for CRD, including a survey of Medtner’s solo piano works, he also recorded for Hyperion, Chandos, Decca and Danacord. His finest recordings include one of his first: in 1977 his pioneering accounts of Julius Reubke’s Piano Sonata and Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam, an organ work freely transcribed by Busoni, appeared on Decca’s L’Oiseau-Lyre imprint; this is now available on Decca Eloquence. Other highlights include a two-disc set of Medtner’s complete Skazki (‘Tales’) and an album of Russian Bach transcriptions, both on Hyperion.

Milne was born in Salisbury to Scottish parents, and went to Bishop Wordsworth’s Grammar School. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Harold Craxton, and then later with the Busoni pupil Guido Agosti at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He credited the masterclasses he heard in Italy with artists including Alfred Cortot, Pablo Casals, Andrés Segovia and Sergiu Celibidache as being of central importance to his artistic development. Milne went on to make many recordings for the BBC, as well as over 20 albums from Weber to Lyapunov. Milne was a pianist who wore his virtuosity lightly; he was not one for ostentatious display, and was a consummate chamber musician. Alongside his performing career, he had a long and fulfilling teaching career as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.