Evgeny Svetlanov’s Russian Anthology of Music playlist (on Spotify)

Evgeny Svetlanov (Евгéний Светлáнов) was the most prolific Russian conductor of the modern age. Along with Nikolai Golovanov and Evgeny Mravinsky, he formed a triumvirate of conductors whose prowess dominated the Soviet and wider global orchestral music scene.

The youngest of the three, Svetlanov made hundreds of records for the Soviet record label Melodiya.

In the last decades of his life, Svetlanov promoted his cannon of works as The Anthology of Russian Music. It is fair to say that Sveltanov recorded just about every orchestral piece by every Russian composer of the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, Svetlanov was an accomplished pianist and composer in his own right.

Today, although not always catalogued as easily as one might hope, virtually all of these works can be found on-line. The convenience factor here is enviable from the position of someone who grew up having to go through stacks of Sovet Melodiya LPs in addition to western pressings of Soviet recordings on a variety of labels….something which used to take not only hours but days years.

But in the digital age it is now easier than ever to hear the best Russian music from Russia’s most prolific and highly gifted conductor.

Ladies and Gentleman: Maestro Evgeny Svetlanov