The ‘Roaring Twenties’ roared in Russia as well as in Europe and America, to an extent not generally realized in the West. This generously filled CD reveals for the first time the light music of a minor master of the day, Matvey Nikolaevsky (1882–1942). Nikolaevsky’s songs and dances were enormously popular in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and ’30s. His style moved effortlessly from the salon music of the late 19th c. to the foxtrots, Charlestons and tangos then in vogue. Most of his substantial output was lost; this CD presents most of his surviving compositions.