Our series is more than a historical chronicle. We will venture to delve into the very essence of what is contained in the words ‘Russian music’... We shall make an attempt to find answers to the numerous ‘whys’. Incidentally, the very first ‘why?’ has already, possibly, formed itself in your mind: 1000 years of Russian music – is that it’s actual age? On the one hand, the title of our series is more an image – after all, ‘1000’ years is, for all of us, a certain symbol of the grand and lofty tread of Time… Our roots lead us deep into the distant past. Yet there is a definite time we can state: 1000 years mark the exact age of Professional musical art in Russia. 

Where do Russian culture and the culture of the Slavs in general take their source? Anyone, who ever displayed interest in this, will confirm - this is a fact of history shrouded in mystery. As for presuming to guess or construe what exactly music that sounded a thousand years ago was like - that seems outrageously impossible! Yet, we will attempt to do just that! 

We shall glimpse into that distant, mist-shrouded Past, when the world was still a uniform entity, and the gigantic volcano of One Common Culture of Humanity spurted forth cultures of different nations… 

Music of the Celts and Scythians, ancient Romans and Bretons enters a vibrant dialog with the music of the Slavs – and you shall be able to witness the grandeur of this Oneness… 

Professional music of Russia... Chants of the very first centuries of Christianity in Russia… They came to us from Byzantium. Here we come up against a paradox: art, regulated by the strictest of canons, acquired here in Russia uniquely National flavor and form, turning into something that had no analogs in any other country of the Christian world! 

You will be interested to hear that for many a century music in Russia was elevated to the loftiest of positions, its value couldn’t be overestimated, the Russian Czars deemed it worthy of their immediate attention and even composed music themselves! 

Let us try and solve another mystery of Russian culture: for seven centuries Russian music embraced exclusively one sole genre - Choral Art - and then, all of a sudden – from the point of view of historical estimates – practically in the blink of an eye – in just a matter of several dozen years Russia mastered genres that had long been flourishing in other countries: as a result producing national opera, symphonies and countless instrumental masterpieces. 

How is it that practically the entire music world became enamored of Russian music at the end of the 18th century, and there wasn’t a single composer able to withstand the great charm of Russian melodies?.. How did it become possible that the Russian musical 19th century produced geniuses in ‘grooves of five’, rather than one by one… 

How were Scriabin’s cosmic theories of Universal music born? What were the first steps of Russian avant-garde like here in this country? How did it ‘invent’ constructivism, minimalism, and other ‘isms’ of the turbulent 20th century, noted for its relentless search for the extreme and the unorthodox? Answers to all these fascinating questions can be found in our series… 

How did Russia survive the catastrophic fate that befell it in the 20th century? Stripped of its culture in the epoch of Bolshevist terror yet coming through it all, scarred but resilient, it continued to shower the world with geniuses… What is its life like today, what moves its spirit – all this and more, in our series “Russia. 1000 years of music”… 
 
 

• THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF RUSSIAN MUSIC – AND THE FORE-CULTURE OF HUMANITY 
• ANCIENT SLAVS
• OLDEN RUSS
• THE BEGINNING OF RUSSIAN PROFESSIONAL MUSICAL ART
• OLD RUSSIAN MUSIC. A PARADOX IN MUSICAL HISTORY
• RUSSIA – THE COUNTRY OF CHORAL SINGING
• THE BIGINNING OF PROFESSIONAL MUSIC IN RUSSIA
• LORD NOVGOROD THE GREAT
• “THE LAY OF THE WARFARE WAGED BY IGOR”
• A PANORAMA OF THE 13TH – 15TH CENTURIES 
• THE ART OF RUSSIAN MONARCHS
• THE 15TH-16TH CENTURIES. PORTRAIT OF AN EPOCH IN ‘GOLDEN HUES’
• THE LAND OF THE BELL CHIMES
• 17TH CENTURY.  “CULTURAL REVOLUTION” IN RUSSIA
• THE RUSSIAN MIRACLE. PARTES CHORAL CONCERTOS OF THE 17TH CENTURY
• 17TH CENTURY MUSICAL FANTASIES
• THE THEATRE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. THE VERTEP
• VOICES OF THE 17TH CENTURY IN FOLK MEMORY
• THE 17TH CENTURY. CHURCH VERSES
• 18TH CENTURY. PANORAMA
• MUSIC IN PETER THE GREAT’S TIME
• THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY
• THE 18TH CENTURY. WORLD STARS IN RUSSIA
• CHRISTMAS IN OLD STYLE
• GERMAN SCIENTIST JACOB VON STAHLIN
• THE FIRST RUSSIAN OPERA “ANIUTA”
• RUSSIAN SONGS
• PORTRAITS OF THE 18TH CENTURY. DMITRY BORTNYANSKY 
• PORTRAITS OF THE 18TH CENTURY. MAXIM BEREZOVSKY
• PORTRAITS OF THE 18TH CENTURY. VASILY PASHKEVICH
• PORTRAITS OF THE 18TH CENTURY. YEVSTIGNEY FOMIN
• 18 CENTURY. RUSSIAN CHAMBER MUSIC
• MUSIC OF THE 19TH CENTURY. OVERTURE
• 19TH CENTURY. RUSSIAN CULTURE AND DILETTANTI
• 19TH CENTURY. FRUITS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
• MUSIC OF RUSSIAN ESTATES
• THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL LANGUAGE
• COMPOSER STEPAN DAVYDOV
• BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY. RUSSIAN ROMANCE
• ALEXANDER  ALIABIEV
• ALEXANDER GURILIOV
• VLADIMIR ODOYEVSKY
• GLINKA, A NATIONAL GENIUS
• ALEXANDER DARGOMYZHSKY
• “THE MIGHTY FIVE”
• RUSSIAN COMPOSERS AND CHRISTMAS