Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was born on March 20, 1915 (Julian: March 7) in Zhitomir in present-day Ukraine. His father Teofil (Theophilus) came from a German commercial family. The famous Russian piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus (of German origin) recognized his huge talent and enrol led him in his piano master cl ass at the Moscow Conservatory in 1 937. Profil Edition Gunter Hanssl er is progressively releasing all the recordings that the great Soviet virtuoso made between 1945 and 1963. Most of them were largely unknown in the West during the Cold War, as Richter could only perform til I 1960 behind the ""Iron Curtain"", that is to say, in the Soviet Union and the sate I lite states of Eastern Europe.

The Enchanted Lake and Kikimora are wonderfully atmospheric, and the performances by Vassily Sinaisky and the BBC Philharmonic are pure magic The performances are matched by recording of equal richness and luminosity.

In Mussorgsky's oeuvre the charecteristic features of Russian music are especially prominent. He was a visionary and revolutionary personality in music.

IMAGINATION – the sixth album by Opus Klassik winner Raphaela Gromes takes listeners on a romantic, virtuoso and musical journey into the world of fantasy. With her soulful and brilliant performance, the young cellist conjures up powerful images before the eyes and ears of listeners. Raphaela Gromes chose works for her musical journey around the world by composers from Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, France, the US and Canada.

While the Middle Ages Suite is interesting, the real gem on this disk is the Scenes de Ballet. In this score, Glazunov matches the pinnacle of ballet music writing that he reached in his ballet The Seasons. Many listeners will recognize some of the numbers in this piece, because they tend to crop up in various "new" ballet productions that are patched together by choreographers such as Peter Maartens and Mikhail Baryshnikov – plus their occasional inclusion in the figure-skating routines presented by those great Russian and Ukrainian skaters every time the Winter Olympics comes around.