Chamber Music & Recitals

The Russian-born Mischa Spoliansky (1898-1985) became one of the major names in cabaret in 1920s Berlin and then, as a refugee from Nazi Germany, in London, he became one of the best-known composers of film scores. He also wrote a handful of orchestral...

The Russian word romans ("romance") denotes an art song whose lyrics usually - but not always! - deal with the subject of Romantic love. A counterpart to the German Lied or French romance, the Russian romans embarked on it's journey late in the 18th...

The Russian violinist Evgeny Sviridov, winner of the MA Festival Bruges Competition in 2017, has chosen to devote his first recording to the sonatas of Giuseppe Tartini. As heir to the Baroque tradition of the early eighteenth century, Tartini developed...

The Russian viola sonata is a rare bird, not least because the instrument itself was frowned upon by the Soviet authorities, and as a result Russian music for the viola has a rather patchy history. It begins in earnest in 1931, when the 1825 Sonata by...

The Russian piano trio reached it's apogee with Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor, dedicated to the memory of Nikolay Rubinstein. A monumental piece in the repertoire, it is cast in only two movements, and was played at Tchaikovsky's own memorial...

The Russian pianist REM Urasin is most closely associated with Chopin, winning numerous prizes and performing every piece the composer wrote over the course of 11 concerts in 2009/2010. Here, though, he turns his attention to his native repertoire,...

The Russian pianist Anastasia Yasko plays four important works by Fr?d?ric Chopin which represent the different periods in his oeuvre: two polonaises - Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante Op. 22 and Polonaise-Fantasie Op. 61, the last Ballade...

The Russian men's chamber choir Akafist, directed by Andrei V. Malutin, is dedicated to the great tradition of Russian choral art and are masters of Orthodox liturgical singing. The choir displays an impressive range of timbres of male voices from the...

The Russian composer Yevgeny Zemtsov (1940-2016) may be better known for the dynasty of musicians - most of them violists - that he fathered than he is for his own music. This first album ever to be devoted to his music features works from the beginning...

The Russian composer Sergey Akhunov (b. 1967) was educated at the Kiev State Conservatory, before he started his career as an oboe player. He subsequently gained experience in various musical styles and genres such as electronic music and rock. In the...

The Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin (1937-2020), who died at the beginning of the pandemic-related cultural hiatus which has been unique with regard to world history, was able to experience considerable appreciation in his last two decades, which...

The Rundfunkchor Berlin, led by it's chief conductor Gijs Leenaars and accompanied by wind players from the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, presents masses by Bruckner and Stravinsky. The mass is arguably the oldest genre in music history, full of...