From the middle of the 19th century, Russian musical life flourished impressively – as this playlist shows. Interestingly enough, the conflict between the rather Western-oriented Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Russophile group around Modest Mussorgsky contributed to enormous productivity. A broad spectrum of styles finally emerged in the 20th century; it ranges from the late-Romantic tone of Sergei Rachmaninov to the Neoclassicism of Igor Stravinsky. Of course, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich cannot be omitted from this compilation: they brought new life to the symphony, a genre that had been declared dead.
