The unique music library of the Russian State TV and Radio Music Centre was established in 1928. In almost 80 years of continuous work the staff of the library has accumulated its vast stock, comprising more than 2 million copies of opera, symphony, choral and chamber music. It owns full sets of works of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian as well as scores of all operas of Strauss, Massne, Charpantier, Cimarosa and other composers. Some of the materials in stock cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
Popular music of Soviet, Russian and foreign composers is also widely represented.
A large segment of the catalogue is made up of donations and contributions by private collectors; some scores were hand-written and autographed by Soviet composers including Aram Khachaturyan, Evgeny Svetlanov, Vissarion.Shebalin, Tikhon Khrennikov and many other. This is definitely the most precious part of the catalogue. On the whole, the Soviet-era catalogue of the Library is Russia’s biggest.
The tremendous catalogue of classical music includes about 1,000 opera scores, some 7,000 entries of symphony music, and 14,000 entries of present-day pop and rock music. Besides, scores of choral arrangements is also a part of the library’s stock.
