Russian, 2017

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.

Russian Revolutionaries: Ewald & Böhme marks both the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the launch of period instrument ensemble The Prince Regents Bands survey of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Russian brass chamber music. PRB perform two of the revolutionary Victor Ewald Quintets in their original instrumentation along with works by the versatile composer and cornettist Oskar Böhme, a German émigré to Russia who was caught up in the turmoil of the fall out of the revolution and executed by the Soviet regime.

“Love and charm are among the many qualities which distinguish this richly enjoyable set of the Tchaikovsky Symphonies,” wrote Gramophone of the cycle that forms the heart of this collection. Mstislav Rostropovich, like Tchaikovsky, represents the very soul of Russian music. Stepping down from the conductor’s podium, he returns to the cello for the Rococo Variations, the composer’s tribute to the spirit of the 18th century.

This documentary covers the Russian Revolution through images from Soviet fiction films from 1918 to 1934. It presents the political utopia in which creative freedom is a driving force, living in the shadow of authoritarian power that will sweep through the world of film and the rest of society.

Putin's Revenge is a riveting investigation of how the U.S. struggled to confront Vladimir Putin over Russian involvement in the 2016 election, how revenge may have motivated Putin to target American democracy, and the U.S. responses under Presidents Obama and Trump.

2017 marks the centenary of one of the most significant events of the 20th century - the Russian Revolution. Using the private journals of Pierre Gilliard, tutor to the Romanov children, this film is an intimate and eye-opening account of the Russian Imperial family in those days of turmoil. How did they get through their days? How did they perceive their lives as their world crumbled around them?

Grigory Sokolov is among the most important Russian pianists to have emerged from the latter half of the 20th century. His career has both suffered and thrived from restraints foisted on him by Soviet authorities: like other iconic Russian keyboard giants of the past, in particular Sviatoslav Richter and Lazar Berman, he was prohibited from appearance in the West for a time, but when he finally debuted in western Europe and the United States, his career took a meteoric upswing, with Sokolov suddenly in heavy demand in the world's major concert halls. Another aspect to Sokolov's career that has added to his charismatic though eccentric persona has been his general avoidance of the recording studio. Most of his recordings are drawn from live concerts, and they attest to his virtuosity and interpretive genius in unusual but generally conservative fare: while his repertory takes in Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev, it also includes Byrd, Couperin, Rameau, and Froberger. Sokolov has recorded for several labels, including Melodiya, Opus 111, and Naïve.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third Russian Supercomputing Days, RuSCDays 2017, held in Moscow, Russia, in September 2017.