Russian, Soviet & Post-Soviet Symphonies

A Discography Of CDs And LPs
Prepared by Michael Herman
Maintained by Stephen Ellis

Discographies

The composers included in this discography are those who wrote symphonies that have been issued on CDs and LPs who were born in Russia or in 11 other nations that once were part of the Soviet Union (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) but not including Estonia. Latvia and Lithuania. The composers of the latter 3 nations will be found in my Discography of Finnish and Baltic Symphonies. The composers are listed alphabetically and a composer index is placed first so the reader can immediately go via links to any particular composer.

As in the previous discographies in this series, no attempt has been made to list every release of every recording of each work. There have just been too many reissues, especially from the major labels, to make this feasible for many recordings. Instead, what are listed are the most current issue the author has located and the earliest release (if any on LP or CD) of that particular recording. In general, multi-disc compendium releases are omitted unless they contain a unique recording or the sole modern reissue of a previously released performance.

The entry for each composer consists of two sections. First there is a compact biographical paragraph that notes some essential information such as place of birth, higher musical education (including schools and prominent teachers), subsequent musical careers in addition to composing and details of other symphonies that have not been recorded. Compositional styles are not discussed in these paragraphs and readers are referred to the bibliography where various reference books that cover this subject are listed. The second part of each composer entry consists of lists of his or her symphonies that have been recorded and the various recordings of each work. Symphony is defined here as any work the composer has designated as such in its title including works called “sinfonia” or “sinfonietta.” The works can be for full orchestra, chamber orchestra, strings, winds, brass or chorus and orchestra. For every symphony that has them, the opus number, key signature and title are noted and the year of composition or première (if known) is stated for all. The entries of the symphonies that have had multiple recordings are listed alphabetically by the conductor’s name. Each listing of a recording consists of the following components: (1) Performers (in this order if all are involved – conductor, soloists, choral group, orchestra), (2) Other works on the recording. (3) Label and catalogue number and year of issue and (4) If the recording is a reissue, the original LP or CD release and its year of issue. Please note that the performers listed are for the entry work and not necessarily for the works that it is coupled with. Also, in most instances when an entry work is included in a large collection (especially if most of the other works are not related to the discography’s subject) the list of couplings is not given but replaced by the title of the collection.

The Symphony came late to Russia. Mikhail Glinka made a couple of efforts that were stillborn so the onset of Russian symphonism falls on the shoulders of Anton Rubinstein whose Symphonies have little suggestion of any Russianess. The true beginnings, however, lie with Mily Balakirev and his acolytes, Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who were declared nationalists, as well as with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, despite his European leanings, whose Symphonies unmistakenly speak with a true Russian accent. In their wake came a small legion of composers, from Alexander Glazunov to Nikolai Miaskovsky, who espoused the Russian symphonic cause and wrote Symphonies in a national style well into the middle of the 20th century. Mainly as a result of the Russian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War, a number of the leading Russian composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov and Sergei Prokofiev (temporarily) went into exile, but others, such as Reinhold Glière and Nikolai Miaskovsky, would pass the torch of symphonic writing by teaching several generations of budding composers. In the 1920’s there was an early flowering of modernistic music as represented by composers such as Alexander Mosolov and Nikolai Roslavetz but this faded rather quickly and the Soviet Union came to represent musical conservatism at it its most rigid for the next half century. Modernism would only rear its head again in this Communist nation’s dying years. Positively, however, the cultural authorities sent composers (willingly or unwillingly) to teach musical professionalism to the various nationalities across the vast Soviet Union who would blend this new knowledge with their own musical heritage. Thus, as can be seen in the pages that follow, even if the Symphony was a latecomer to the areas under discussion, lost time has certainly been made up for. The composers whose numerous recorded Symphonies are documented below range from some of the world’s major composers such as Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich to some whose existence is known to the outside world only because the Soviet Melodiya record company committed one or more of their works to long playing records.

Acknowledgements

I have received a lot of help in preparing this work. As in my previous Discographies, Rob Barnett of MusicWeb International helped eliminate a lot of errors by proofreading the entire work. I am very grateful to him as well as to MusicWeb International’s founder and webmaster Len Mullenger who has kindly hosted and helped me prepare my Discographies for the l website and has patiently tutored me on the use of a software program that has made it easier for me get my work ready for the internet. For this particular Discography, I received help from David Canfield, Robert Gazizov.and Shirley Vrieseling of Brilliant Classics.

After this work first appeared online, a number of knowledgeable viewers have kindly sent me additional information that I have incorporated into the Discography. They are: Terry Hopton, Pier Giogio Leone, Onno van Rijen, Holger Sambale, Kyle Swan, Le Than-Tam and Daniel Wieland.

Notes

(1) Spelling: As the names of practically all composers in this discography are originally written in different alphabets (Cyrillic, Armenian, Georgian, etc.) they often appear transliterated differently in various sources. I have used the most commonly recognized versions such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, etc. In some cases, where known, I will also indicate a transliteration preferred in the newly independent former Soviet Republics such as Ukraine, Belarus and Azerbaijan.

(2) For the sake of clarity and convenience, all LPs from the Soviet Union’s record manufacturing monopoly are indicated by the label name “Melodiya” although this designation did not come into use until c. 1964.

(3) All recordings listed are CDs unless specifically designated as LPs.

Finally, as this resource is published online it can always be a work in progress as the author has the ability to amend the work when necessary with very little difficulty. A work of this type is bound to contain errors and omissions as so much material has been gathered from so many diverse sources.

Composer List