Forgotten Russians

Russian music of the past 100 years has come to mean Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, perhaps Scriabin and Medtner. But the early 20th century saw a national explosion of the arts around the Revolution, with music at the centre. Dozens of fine composers, however, have since been forgotten, their music lain unperformed for decades. Vladimir Feltsman’s fascinating album resurrects the brooding, modernist Two Nocturnes by Alexander Mosolov, better known for his orchestral work Iron Foundry, while Five Preludes by Nikolai Roslavets, also known as The Russian Schoenberg, is heavily influenced by Scriabin. The standout work is the Sonata No. 2 by Sergei Protopopov, which shimmers and glistens with extraordinary harmonic colours.