Svetlana Marinchenko is originally from Russia, Moscow. She started to play music when she was 17, after hearing Coltrain's Love Supreme. After 3 years of experience in music, she managed to get enrolled in the Musorgsky Colledge of Music. Svetlana studied with the famous Russian jazz pianist Andrey Kondakov. During the first year of study, Svetlana discovered herself as a composer and organized her own combo, Svetamuzika. Svetamuzika has participated in many international jazz festivals, such as "Close Encounters" Helsinki, Rajation Jazz Festival Helsinki and "Petrojazz" Sankt-Peterburg.

One of the leading sopranos of her generation, Ekaterina Siurina enjoys an international career that takes her to the top opera houses in Europe and America. She made her professional debut as Gilda in Rigoletto, singing opposite the world-renowned baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Commenting on her recent performance as Violetta in La bohème, Parterre Box called her singing “deeply touching, with arching beams of tone.”

The Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir (artistic director and conductor Andrei Petrenko) presents Great Music of Small Forms, an album of works by Russian composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. These include works by Varlamov and Glinka as representatives of the St. Petersburg school, by Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Balakirev and Cui (The Mighty Handful), and by Arensky, Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky. Whilst these composers were primarily known for their large-scale compositions, here they reveal themselves as consummate masters of the choral miniature, finding their inspiration in the masterpieces of Russian poetry, in folk songs and in salon romances. Listeners will here discover not only world-famous works by these composers but also original choral arrangements of their music that were made especially for this recording.

Silent Songs - the fascinating collection of songs by the eminent Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov - enchants with its incomparable atmosphere of silence in a new, impressive interpretation. Elene Gvritishvili and Alexey Pudinov's selection of Silent Songs celebrates the subtle beauty of the music, the contemplative lyricism and the sound of their words.

Star tenor Piotr Beczala presents a selection of romances by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, together with the acclaimed lied accompanist Helmut Deutsch. The romance was the most popular musical genre in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Russia, practised by professionals as well as amateurs. Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff both enriched this genre with their lyricism and melodic invention. Elevated by Deutsch’s splendid accompaniment, Beczala delivers these songs with a great sense for the Slavic idiom and meaning of the words, combined with colourful lyricism and italianità, perfectly fitting the Russian and cosmopolitan musical language of these two masters.

The dignified bearing and quiet wisdom of Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881–1950) gained him the sobriquet of ‘the conscience of Russian music’ – and those qualities are reflected in the unemphatic strength of his music. His orchestral, chamber and instrumental works are regaining the currency they once enjoyed, but his large corpus of songs, many of them understated masterpieces, has yet to attract systematic attention – a situation this series hopes to remedy.

Nikolay Myaskovsky (1881–1950) was given the sobriquet of ‘the conscience of Russian music’ thanks to his dignified bearing and quiet wisdom – qualities reflected in the unemphatic strength of his music. His orchestral, chamber and instrumental works are regaining the currency they once enjoyed, but his large corpus of songs, many of them understated masterpieces, has yet to attract systematic attention – a situation this series hopes to remedy. This second album presents his entire output of songs for baritone and piano, most of them early works responding to Russian lyric poetry with the calm dignity typical of his compositions – though there is the occasional flash of passion.

Aquarium or Akvarium (Russian: Аквариум) is a Russian rock group formed in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) in 1972. The band had many member changes over its 40-year history, and at the end the only remaining original member was lead singer and founder Boris Grebenshchikov, also colloquially known as BG after his initials. He is often called as 'Grandfather of Russian Rock'. Aquarium were strongly influenced by Western rock music as well as by new wave and reggae artists. This was reflected in the band's often complex compositions and wide-ranging lyric themes, even including references to Celtic and Indian cultures.

We are very pleased to present our first release in a new series from the PaTRAM Institute. The music performed on this recording of Orthodox choral music in the Slavonic language was written by famed Russian composer Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944). Teach me Thy Statutes is performed by the PaTRAM Institute Male Choir, a highly professional group which is a collaboration of Russian and American singers.

Reference Recordings is very pleased to present the third release in our series from the PaTRAM Institute™, rising stars whose previous two albums on our label, Teach Me Thy Statutes (FR­727SACD) and The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (FR-­731), have been honored with GRAMMY® nominations for Best Choral Performance. The music performed on this new recording of Russian Orthodox choral music comprises works of many great Russian composers, all celebrating the theme of Russian Orthodox hymns dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Following Anna Netrebko's astounding success in Salzburg's Il Trovatore production we are pleased to announce a very exciting opera release for the start of 2015, recorded during her U-Live tour in 2012. Anna Netrebko performs Iolanta, the title role of one of Tchaikovsky’s most passionate, evocative scores and one of opera’s most enigmatic figures making the character her own and dedicating herself to championing this under-appreciated work.

Soprano Olga Peretyatko is in demand for opera roles requiring a voice that’s endlessly flexible and light on its feet. Those are mainly Italian, but there are plenty of them in her native Russian repertoire, too. The all-Russian programme here spans just over a century, from Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila to ’s Moscow, Cheryomushki. Her arias from these are impeccably done, but while there are no downright showstoppers, it’s during the tracks in between that she shines, supported solidly by the Ural Philharmonic under Dmitry Liss. The sinuous lines of the Hymn to the Sun from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Golden Cockerel are cleanly yet sensuously done, with a whiff of spice and incense about them, and the aria for ’s The Nightingale chirrups and cajoles. Volkhova’s Lullaby from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko has both poise and weight, and her Rachmaninov songs combine a gleaming timbre with an idiomatic melancholy.

Anna Netrebko presents a dazzling array of iconic soprano arias by Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Puccini, Cilea and Purcell in her first solo album in 5 years, a new recording and visual project featuring some of opera’s most powerful and moving arias.

In its history as a concert orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks has also devoted itself on numerous occasions to opera, under such eminent conductors as Rafael Kubelik and Leonard Bernstein. Chief conductor Mariss Jansons also maintains the tradition, for example with concert performances of Russian operas such as "Eugene Onegin". BR-KLASSIK now presents the 2014 live recording in Munich's Philharmonie im Gasteig of the semi-staged performance of Tchaikovsky's late masterpiece "The Queen of Spades". With great connoisseurship, Mariss Jansons has brought together a group of singers for this performance in original Russian who are all native speakers of the language, and very familiar with the work. They include Misha Didyk as Hermann, Tatiana Serjan as Lisa, and Alexey Markov as Prince Yeletsky.