The Music of Russia This episode takes us to Russia. Rachmaninov is of course one of the great names of Russian 20th century music, a supreme pianist, a great conductor, and a sublime composer whose work only becomes more and more popular with every passing year. Certainly, the most famous of all the Russian composers is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky whose music with its searing emotional power and its brilliant sense of fantasy, his ability to create love, wonderful ballets, and extraordinarily dramatic.