The Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva was largely unknown in the West until very late in her career.

When she first came to Britain in 1984, aged 60, as a juror for the Leeds piano competition, people were astonished by her playing. She made her Proms debut in 1992.

Nikolayeva was associated above all with the music of just two composers, Bach and Shostakovich.

At a young age, she memorised all Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues, which thereafter became a central work in her repertoire.

It was after hearing her perform in a Bach competition in 1950 that Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the judges, became her friend and, inspired by her playing, composed his own 24 Preludes and Fugues, one of the greatest piano works of the 20th Century.

Nikolayeva was the dedicatee and became the work's definitive interpreter.

Small and homely-looking, Nikolayeva resembled a typical Russian babushka or grandmother, both in appearance and behaviour, rather than a typical concert star.

Without self-promotion or gimmicks, she simply sat and played the music, with total authority.

Her fame was still growing when she suffered a fatal stroke while performing in San Francisco in 1993, aged 69.

-Roger Moodiman, Marine Parade, Brighton