Georgy Sviridov is a classical Russian composer.

Among Sviridov's most popular orchestral pieces are the Romance and the Waltz from his Snowstorm, musical illustrations after Pushkin (1975), that were originally written for the eponymous 1964 TV film (Метель) based on the short story from Pushkin's "Belkin's tales" (Повести Белкина). A short segment from his score for the 1967 film Forward, Time! (Время, вперед!) was selected as the opening theme for the main evening TV news program Vremya (Программа "Время"; "Время" means Time) and became the staple of Soviet life for several generations.

Poetry always occupied an important place in Sviridov's artistic universe. He wrote songs and romances to the lyrics of Mikhail Lermontov (1938, 1957), Alexander Blok (1941), William Shakespeare (1944 – 1960), Robert Burns (in Russian translation, 1955). Despite the popularity of Sviridov's instrumental works, both the composer himself and the music critics regarded vocal and choral music to be his main strengths. Pathetic Oratorio(1959) after Vladimir Mayakovsky has been called a masterful musical rendering of one of the most popular Soviet poets. Sviridov's prolific vocal chamber and vocal symphonic output includes Oratorio To the memory of Sergei Yesenin (1956), Little Cantata Wooden Russia (1964) after Yesenin, Cantata Songs of Kursk (1964), Spring Cantata (1972) after Nikolai Nekrasov, songs, romances, and cantatas after Fyodor Tyutchev, Sergei Yesenin, Alexander Blok, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Prokofiev, Robert Rozhdestvensky.

While Sviridov's music remains little known in the West, his works received high praise in his homeland for their memorable lyrical melodies and national flavor.

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