"Vertinsky is alive"

On March 21, in the framework of a three-day cabaret festival, a concert will be held at the Gogol Center-dedication to Alexander Vertinsky, in which bright Russian indie groups will take part. On the day of the 125th anniversary of the actor and singer, his songs will be performed by The Retuses , Artemiev , Naada, Sinecdokha Montok, Okudzhav and Tinavie . The director of the musical performance “Vertinsky NEXT” is Denis Azarov, the author of the play “The Christmas tree by the Ivanovs” based on the play by Alexander Vvedensky on the stage of the Gogol Center. Special guest and presenter-Sergey Vasiliev (ex- "Cabaret of Mad Pierrot").

The concert participants are talking about their Vertinsky.

Sergey "Mad Pierrot" Vasiliev

Antonen Arto called the actor to the act of self -destruction on the stage, not at all demanding the same from the thinker, the author, the librettist. For the past seven years I have been singing in a restaurant, club, cabaret - this is perhaps stupid, like the death of the infantryman at the front, and the same tragic and elevated.

It seems to me that we should pay attention to the fact that Vertinsky - and he is almost Blok’s brother in talent and spirit - went with his statement to the restaurant and on the stage. We must see in this fatal painting of time. For me, he is no longer an artist and not a poet - he is a saint, whose name wants to wash their faces.

Vadik Korolev, "Okudzhav"

I was introduced to the songs of Alexander Vertinsky by the evening, including copyright, amateur performances in the student club of Perm State University. It all started with the only song "Ball of the Lord." I remember, it was surprised that this was not my contemporary. For me in Vertinsky, the vulgarity of the circus costume, the subtlety of a large shape and the everyday sadness of any loss, that his songs fly into the heart faster than peanuts in the gopnik beer, mixed so cunningly in Vertinsky. The feeling that Vertinsky is alive and, until he is popular, is silently leading the metropolitan weddings, looks into the eyes of the guests from the groom and will soon return to a large stage.

Tina Manysheva, Tinavie

Vertinsky’s work until the day when I was offered to participate in his tribute, I knew very hard.

I am attracted to the historical past, the past in art. I wonder what they sang, wrote, thought, painted people at that time. Was it easy for them to convey their work to the public. I began to listen to Vertinsky’s songs, read his biography. So, I hear the irony in the songs, a sad smile, the ease of thought, but as if he covers his depth with lightness and pop genre. And I would say that these romances or songs as such ... It seemed that he reads songs, singing poetry. It is interesting that recently, having taken up vocal teaching, I found out that there is such a technique (a way of developing vocals, liberation of voice, emancipation), which is to sing poems, stretch the semantic vowels, create an instant melody, history. Then I read that in his stage image, Vertinsky chose the image of Pierrot, a character with white makeup, a sad expression on his face, and everything came together for me. Ironous sadness, on the surface of the theater, inside the human drama, thought, depth. I am close to the ideas of the theater on stage, I create stories, emotions, sometimes play. But never had to touch the theater of that time. It turned out that everything is completely the same as now - the same meanings, the same thoughts, but, it seems to me, more poetic.

Vertinsky's voice accurately shows how lost and lonely a person is.

It’s not easy for me, to be honest, to sing poems, not the first time understanding and meaning come. I really do not change either the style, form, nor the feed in the interpretation, but I do it in the manner characteristic of me, I pay attention to the intonation of my voice, I am a blood instrumentalist.

There is nothing special about choosing songs, I know that I have chosen not the most popular compositions of the artist, but they are about love, about what excites me, about time, about memories, about meetings and unresolved difficult feelings. Everything I love!

Nadezhda Gritskevich, "Naada"

The songs of Alexander Nikolayevich seemed a fragile crystal of post -revolutionary timelessness, but all new generations of artists continue to return to them - and Vertinsky’s voice, deliberately soft and playful, but always with a fair amount of bitter irony, and in the XX and XXI century, it accurately shows how lost and lonely a person. Vertinsky gained popularity as the author of mystical love romances, but I want to show that he sang not only about women and actresses. I will fulfill the romance to the verses of George Ivanov “Above the Pink Sea”, about the fleeting of time. I also really want to fulfill “what I have to say” - the relevance of this song in the light of the events taking place, probably, is not even necessary.

Mikhail Rodionov, The Retuses

I like the spirit of the beginning of the 20th century. For me personally, Vertinsky is the personification of the Silver Age, which poured into music. He is interesting to me as an artist and performer: charisma, intonation, dynamics. It is difficult to say why it was Vertinsky who at one time carried me away, it is possible that I was simply absorbed by his good decadence. We will perform “in the blue and distant ocean”, “Spanish-Suis” and “I am laughing at myself today”.