Tolstoy loved music, was an amateur pianist himself, and often played four-handed pieces with friends and family.

"Music, like every other art, but especially music, makes us desire that everyone, as many people as possible, take part in our experience of pleasure. Nothing more forcefully reveals the true meaning of art: you are transported into others, and you want to feel through them."
– from Tolstoy's Diary, October 3, 1910