I was playing around in Gnucleaus(a P2P program) when I stumbled upon a composer named Rachmaninov. I've listened to the classics forever, and it blew my mind that I'd never found this man before now. I searched the internet for his history. It didnt surprise me to find that he was from Russia. I've always enjoyed Russian composers for the balance of grace and power in their works, both musicaly and artistically. What do you think of Classical Music? What of the impact Russia has had upon its surface? Do you enjoy listening to it at all? What modern or mraditional composers do you listen to?

The following was painted by Lydia Davidenkova. (Russian Contemporary Artist)

Rachmaninov is one of my favorite composers ever (next is Beethoven, third would be Dvorak). recommendation: Watch the movie Shine! about David Helfgot the pianist. He went crazy over playing the third piano concerto...
Personally I like his first piano concerto better!

Another Russian composor I really like is Borodin. You should check him out as well.

Rachmaninov is one of my favorite composers ever (next is Beethoven, third would be Dvorak). recommendation: Watch the movie Shine! about David Helfgot the pianist. He went crazy over playing the third piano concerto...
Personally I like his first piano concerto better!

Another Russian composor I really like is Borodin. You should check him out as well.

Thanks Reup! Im familiar with the movie shine, I watched it a few weeks ago for the first time. Excellent movie I might add! :)

I've listened to Borodin a little also, but Dvorak is a new name for me. Im checking it out right now! Thanks for the recomendations, they've been helpfull. :ok:

@ Reup
Have you ever listened to any John Cage?

Dead Russian Composers are amazing...I love their music for all of the reasons said above.

SHINE is a great movie...freaking amazing kid.

I love classical music...it's so...powerful...and amazing. Plus, a lot of amazing Opera's came from that time (Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni for example)

Yeah, I like Russian music. Rachmaninov has already been mentioned - his Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini is one of my all time favourites. Also, Shostakovich is good. He wrote some excellent symphonies - No. 5 is best known but I love his 1st symphony. I also like Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition though I much prefer the Piano Solo Original to the orchestral versions that composers like Ravel did later on.

I like classical music that is influenced by traditional music and music from Russia and Eastern Europe tends to be rich in harmony and texture while remaining very melodic. More than Russian composers I like the music of Dvorak, Bartok and most of all Smetana - whose Ma Vlast is another of my favourites.

Wow. I just did listen to John Cage. That's some weird piano playing... The prepared pianos sound great though!

i like classical music. it gives me a decent balance for the electronic stuff i'm usually
in to. as for classical composers i like the works of wagner, chopin, haendel and
bach. but there even are contemporary composers which are really amazing me. like
jeremy soulé, who is writing great music for games, has done some extraordinary
works, e.g. the score for morrowind.

My fav. Russian composer is Tchaikovsky. Other than that, I like Bach, Haendel, Vivaldi and Scarlatti. I'm into baroque...

Of all that have been mentioned so far I really enjoy Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Borodin (Knez Igor is just superb).

There are many composers of serious music I like (Dvorak being among the top five)!
I'd like to recomend Aram Khachaturian (not Russian, but from the Soviet Union), Frederic Chopin (just awsome), Edvard Grieg (mostly Peer Gynt, but I like his piano concertos). I'd also recomend Maurice Ravel and Tommaso Albinoni and of course the two masters - Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. There are more... Gustav Mahler, Carl Orff and even George Gershwin...
I know they are all from very different time periods, but they are just great!

Well i like quite a few.
Wagner (but its difficult to listen to it all the time since Wagner had very little variation and msot of it is bombastic) Chopin, Beethoven but also 'less' popular ones like Bedrich Smetana