I want to listen to Russian music in 2011

Russian music is the tradition that first motivated me to explore classical music, and the piece that pulled me in was Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110.  Kronos Quartet's performance on the early 1990s Black Angels CD was the first recording and remains the best recording of the work I've ever heard.  String Quartet No. 15, written shortly before his death, is an extraordinary work, and the Piano Trio No. 2 is worth getting to know, as well.  There's a fantastic recording of Shostakovich's own two-piano arrangement of his Fourth Symphony, the only version of the work that circulated and that people heard until its formal premiere in the early 1960s, on Chandos.  His Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk might just be my favorite opera of the twentieth century.

Speaking of Kronos, their disc Night Prayers features works by late-Soviet and post-Soviet composers including Gubaidulina, Kancheli, Golijov, Yanov-Yanovsky, etc.  I think it's their most important disc and a wonderful introduction to contemporary music that, in the broadest sense, could be called "Russian."

Yevgeny Sudbin's recordings of the first two Medtner piano concertos -- the first coupled with an outstanding recording of the Tchaik First Piano Concerto, the second appearing alongside the original version of Rach Four -- are excellent. It's hard to imagine more charismatic performances or a more committed advocate of music historically damned with faint praise than Sudbin.  One can only hope that he gets around to recording the third concerto at some point.  His solo Scriabin piano recital is also a strong introduction to Scriabin's soundworld.  I'm not that high on Scriabin's orchestral works, but Gergiev's Philips recording of The Poem of Ecstasy (coupled with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring) is the best recording of any orchestral Scriabin I know (Gergiev's Rite is good, too).

You don't mention familiarity with Stravinsky, so the four great ballets (Firebird, Petrushka, Rite, and Apollo) await your attention.  EMI recently rereleased Simon Rattle's CBSO recordings of these works in a self-recommending budget 2-disc set.  More off the beaten path, check out Les Noces (the Pokrovsky Ensemble recording on Nonesuch, coupled with over a dozen traditional Russian wedding songs, is fascinating); the symphonies, especially the Symphony of Psalms (I'm partial to Boulez's BPO recording on DG); and late works like Agon and Requiem Canticles -- they're mid-twentieth-century academic atonalism, yet they remain quintessentially Stravinskian.  Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta made a recording of some of this late material for DG that's now out-of-print but worth trying to track down.

Loris Tjeknavorian and the Armenian Philharmonic made an excellent series of recordings of Aram Khachaturian's orchestral music back in the 1990s for the (now-defunct) ASV label.  The ballet suites feature some gorgeous late romantic compositional writing.  If you love big, brassy sound in a modernist idiom, you'll find Khachaturian's one-movement Symphony No. 2, "The Bell," very appealing! It's music that'll blow your hair back!

I would definitely start with both Tchaikovsky & Glazunov. Their music is ultimately moving, even powerful stuff, and the beauty and eloquence are compelling. The Tchaikovsky symphonies are very well served on record and Glazunov's are getting their. As for Tchaikovsky's symphonies, try Svetlanov, Janssons, or Muti set. For the Glazunov, Serebrier. Then just work your way to Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Catoire, and then the Soviets (Myaskovsky in particular).

Happy listening.

How about Myaskovsky? Interesting symphonies and string quartets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=kRokLb3x3ic&vq=large

Rolf

I heartily recommend Boris Goudonov.  The soundtrack will blow you away.  I also have a wonderful disc entitled Kiev Christmas Liturgy.  The Russian male voices are very exciting.