For the 140 anniversary since the birth of the great composer Sergei Rachmaninoff two CDs with ancient romance songs that belonged to his mother and grandmother have been released in his hometown of Veliky Novgorod.

      Implementation of the project became possible after the Novgorod regional specialist Valery Demidov had found two collections of nearly forgotten lyrical and art songs of the 19th century in St. Petersburg. As examination established, the collections once belonged to Rachmaninoff’s grandmother Sofia Butakova and his mother Lyubov Rachmaninoff who lived in Veliky Novgorod.

      The CDs were recorded in the Rachmaninoff Music House. The voice parts were performed by the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Vitaly Panfilov and the soloist of St. Petersburg Opera Anastasia Bogoslavskaya.