This disc is titled Forgotten Russians. Without wishing to appear glib, some of them were forgotten for a reason – but circumstances certainly contributed. In the years during and after the Russian Revolution, the state encouraged an interest in the avant-garde. Soviet Russia was going to lead the world in new ideas, and certainly keep pace with the Germans and French at the forefront of new music. It wasn’t until the rise of Stalin around 1930 that the government disapproved of what it labelled ‘formalism’ and composers in the USSR were ostracised if they did not conform to a tonal, folk-based style to please the proletariat.