# Where Are All The Russians?



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

This topic may or may not have been covered before but I'm seriously interested in finding newer Russian composers. It seems that an era of great Russians has come to past with the death of Schnittke in the late 90s and Gubaidulina hanging on to the very edge (she's getting up there in age -- she's in her 80s). So this is my general question: where have all the Russians gone?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Russia, presumably.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Well, according to Wiki:

The profile of "Classical" or concert hall music has to a considerable degree been eclipsed by on one hand the rise of commercial popular music in Russia, and on the other its own lack of promotion since the collapse of the USSR. Yet a number of composers born in the 1950s and later have made some impact, notably Leonid Desyatnikov who became the first composer in decades to have a new opera commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre (Rosenthal's Children, 2005), and whose music has been championed by Gidon Kremer and Roman Mints.

HOWEVER YOU'LL BE GLAD TO KNOW:

A specific, exclusively Russian kind of music has emerged, that mixes criminal songs, bard and romance music. It is labelled "Russian chanson" (a neologism popularized by its main promoter, Radio Chanson). Its main artists include Mikhail Krug, Mikhail Shufutinsky, and Alexander Rosenbaum. With lyrics about daily life and society, and frequent romanticisation of the criminal underworld, chanson is especially popular among adult males of the lower social class.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Vyacheslav Artyomov, Elena Firsova, Dmitri Smirnov, Sergei Slonimsky (an impressive symphonist), Alla Pavlova and Rodion Shchedrin are some of the most well-known contemporary Russian composers.

Some of them have settled abroad - Firsova and Smirnov live in England, Pavlova in New York. And quite a few others have passed away in recent years, including Boris Tchaikovsky, Boris Tischenko, Edison Denisov ...

Well-known composers from former Soviet republics are Kancheli, Silvestrov, Mansurian, Pärt etc.

A young iconoclast/inventor composer I personally find interesting is Georgy Dorokhov.

A good deal of examples of music (complete works only) by younger Russian composers can be heard the Moscow conservatory site of _Fragilité_:
http://fragilite.com/en/category/students/v/g-dorokhov/


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

This might hold you over:


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Kleinzeit said:


> This might hold you over:


Lol... Funny stuff. Ha!


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Lera Auerbach is a young Russian composer worth seeking out, but she moved to America and sneakily has -bach in her name to lure in those Austro-German hegemony types.

Rodion Shchedrin is another not-quite-dead significant Russian composer who has a new opera premiered this year.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Thanks to all for the information so far!


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Yes, I'm quite familiar with Shchedrin's music. Love the ballets (_Anna Karenina_, _The Seagull_) and the _Concertos for Orchestra_.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

I actually found something i liked






Alla Pavlova - Elegy for piano and string orchestra


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

And


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

One of my favourite piano pieces by Shchedrin:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ravndal said:


> I actually found something i liked
> 
> 
> 
> ...


A career underscoring sentimental and romance scenes in films lays open to this composer...


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

PetrB said:


> A career underscoring sentimental and romance scenes in films lays open to this composer...


Yeah, I don't like Pavlova. Way too sugary for my tastes. Not enough contrasts in her music either.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I bet over half are teaching theory and comp in colleges and conservatories in The States, Canada, and Australia 

So many ex-soviet citizens, from Russia, Ukraine, etc. left in a decade or longer wave when the U.S.S.R. came unglued.

ADD: one example -- Nikolai Sergeevich Korndorf (Russian: Николáй Сергéевич Корндóрф) Born, bred and lived in Russia 1947 - 1991. Emigrated to and became Canadian, 1991 (Vancouver), deceased, 2001.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

PetrB said:


> I bet over half are teaching theory and comp in colleges and conservatories in the States and Australia
> 
> So many ex-soviet citizens, from Russia, Ukraine, etc. left in a decade or longer wave when the U.S.S.R. came unglued.


That's what they want you to believe. They are all actually undercover KGB agents!.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

This was pretty cool

Lera Auerbach - Prelude No. 16 in B-flat minor





Lera Auerbach (b. 1973) is an acclaimed Russian poet, pianist, and composer. She was a child prodigy, performing as a soloist as early as eight years old and even composed an opera at twelve. Although she was born in Russia, she emigrated to the United States and studied piano and composition (with Milton Babbitt) at Julliard. She is a prolific composer and her musical language is characterized by a mixture of tonal and atonal writing. Her music straddles both romanticism and modernism, and is influenced by Scriabin, Shostakovich, and Schnittke. While many of her works have not been recorded, those that have reveal her penchant for creating a decidedly grim, melancholy, and pessimistic sound world.


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## IBMchicago (May 16, 2012)

Where are all the Russian composers? One can say the same for their gymnasts and hockey players. It's hard to enforce extreme discipline in early childhood in a free market system.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

I wonder what sort of research people do before coming to the conclusion that there aren't very many composers of some category. Women, Russians, etc. 

We live in the information age and it's very easy to do a simple couple of searches.... that of course yield zillions of composers in that category.

Wouldn't it be better to ask ourselves, "Why don't I know about very many composers from that category?" 
The answer is "Because I haven't yet bothered to look for them. I now will!"

One way of looking is to visit a community of enthusiasts and ask, "I'd like to start learning more about this category of composers. Would anyone like to make some recommendations to me?" That can easily be done without the assumption that one's lack of knowledge about a group makes that group somehow deficient.

(This is not directed only at the OP here, by the way, and I know this OP to be quite knowledgeable about many subjects. We've had a few similar threads lately.)


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

hreichgott said:


> I wonder what sort of research people do before coming to the conclusion that there aren't very many composers of some category. Women, Russians, etc.
> 
> We live in the information age and it's very easy to do a simple couple of searches.... that of course yield zillions of composers in that category.
> 
> ...


Since this is an open forum, I'm free, like anyone else is, to create a thread as long as it adheres to the forum's guidelines. A person shouldn't take my initial post so seriously or make assumptions about _why_ I created the thread when they don't know the answer. The reason I created the thread was to pick people's minds about _who_ they considered to be some of the top Russian composers working today. My question shouldn't be taken in a negative way and if it is then I have to ask: when did you become so sensitive?  Honestly, I've forgotten about this thread and I probably wouldn't have ever responded to it again, unless to say "Thank you" to all who contributed, but I don't really understand why you would leave this message? Quite puzzling really.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Ah. I took "where have they gone," "an era has come to an end" etc. at face value. If you meant it not to be taken seriously then I simply didn't pick up on that. My apologies.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

hreichgott said:


> Ah. I took "where have they gone," "an era has come to an end" etc. at face value. If you meant it not to be taken seriously then I simply didn't pick up on that. My apologies.


No worries, hreichgott.


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