In his early days the composer-pianist Igor Raykhelson – born in Leningrad in 1961, once a New York resident and now based in Moscow – studied both classical and jazz piano. Both influences have combined to create a uniquely personal, Rachmaninov-plays-the-blues Neo-Romantic style: not only is Raykhelson unafraid to write a good tune – it’s clear right away whose tune it is. And in his chamber and instrumental works, the parlando manner that Raykhelson absorbed from jazz becomes particularly effective. Raykhelson’s chamber music is usually written for his friends, and here he is joined by some of Russia’s finest musicians, including the cellist Alexander Kniazev and the pianist Konstantin Lifschitz – and the violinist in Raykhelson’s lyrical Melodia is his wife, Ekaterina Astashova.

Marc Bouchkov, violin, has appeared as a soloist with a number of major European orchestras; in January 2018, Gramophone featured him as ‘One to Watch’. Ekaterina Astashova, violin, has premiered several of the works of Igor Raykhelson, her husband, and together they have performed around the world, with performances taking them across Europe and as far as the Bahamas. She is also an avid jazz player. The violist Andrei Usov is a member of the Romantic String Quartet and the Moscow Soloists. Alexander Kniazev was appointed professor at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1995; he frequently gives master-classes in France, Korea and Spain. He is also active as an organist. Konstantin Lifschitz, piano, has given recitals in the most important of the world’s concert venues. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and in 2008 was appointed a professor of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.