It was at this time that Catoire began taking lessons in piano and basic harmony from Klindworth's student, V. I. Willborg.
Catoire met Tchaikovsky again, and he showed him (along with Nikolai Gubert and Sergei Taneyev) the string quartet he had written in Berlin for Rüfer.
On Tchaikovsky's recommendation, Catoire went to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg with a request for composition and theory lessons.
With Lyadov, Catoire studied counterpoint and wrote several pieces, including the lovely Caprice Op.
Catoire's family, friends, and colleagues were not sympathetic to his choice of career in composition, so in 1899, after a series of disappointments, he withdrew to the countryside and nearly gave up composing altogether.
After two years of withdrawal from society, and having broken off almost all connections with musical friends, the opus 7 Symphony emerged in the form of a sextet as a result of this seclusion.
Today Catoire is very little known, although a few recordings exist of his piano works by Marc-André Hamelin, Anna Zassimova and Alexander Goldenweiser, while David Oistrakh and Laurent Breuninger recorded the complete violin music.
Catoire's compositions demand not only high virtuosity but also an ear for instrumental colour.
12, Quatre Morceaux: Chant du Soir, Méditation, Nocturne, Etude fantastique; Op.34, Poème No.1 e-moll , Poeme Op.