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Many of the greatest successes in the world’s concert halls and in opera and ballet stem from the pens of Russian composers. The people’s love for their vast country, their longing for freedom from the yoke of tyranny and painful deprivations had engendered such powerful emotions that these could only be expressed in music. While Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Glinka introduced into their music the moods and atmosphere of the people, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Rimsky- Korsakov succeeded in their efforts to include in their compositions the tastes of the upper strata of Tsarist Russian society, that were influenced by trends in the West.
But the 10 CDs of this unusual collection go far beyond the 19th century and well into our own times. Composers such as Shostakovich, Kabalevsky and Khachaturian can be heard conducting or performing their own works, world-class stars such as David Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich play works dedicated to them and benchmark recordings by Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Rubinstein and other internationally renowned artists complete this unique musical portrait of Russian musical culture.
Works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Glasunov, Kabalevsky, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Borodin, Khachaturian, Gliere and Stravinsky.
Sviatoslav Richter