17 September 2003
ALEXANDER Gradsky refers to a rare breed of musicians, to whom the power of talent allows us not to rush anywhere in our vain time and rarely to remind ourselves. Here he is not in a hurry - he writes the opera Master and Margarita for almost 30 years, has been building the theater for 12 years, and the other day released a new album (" Reader ") , which he has not done since 1991.
- ALEXANDER Borisovich, why do you rarely spoil the audience with new songs? Laziness, no time or just no need?
- All creative people have pauses. A person can not be endlessly gifted and give birth to ideas every day. It seems to me that if something is done, it is necessarily new and interesting.
- The songs turned out social?
- No, the lyric plate, absolutely in a different manner from the one I used to sing in the past, is something that is connected with social, patriotic, civic lyrics.
- You are no longer interested in this?
- I did not stop worrying about social issues. It's just that these songs are not so straightforward. In addition, today we have achieved everything that could be achieved. In a situation where any manifestation of free thought could result in prison and persecution, we could only protest through some forms of art. Today there is no one to fight with, so the satire itself is becoming obsolete. Any fool in power is so visible that he no longer needs to be socially denoted and denounced. Gone are the days when, after the shooting of protesters in Vilnius, I wrote "The Ballad of a tired guard" ("... And the father of the kid has not become full." The lies of the clip are full, and the thief in the Kremlin was not caught by the hand, because he could not be caught ... "), and two days later he sang it on Central TV.
- However, in your interviews you continue to denounce. Basically goes to your colleagues for being inept.
- Statements are another matter. And then, what kind of colleagues are they? Colleagues, this is when professionals. Today I have few professional colleagues.
- I heard that you share this: there is me and everyone else.
- Well, a couple more people.
- Recently on TV the recording of your joint performance with Larisa Dolina and Svetlanov's orchestra was repeated. I understand that she is one of these two people?
- When she is engaged in such music, then yes. When she sings other music, I do not want to evaluate it.
- The fact that you reproach your colleagues for being unprofessional does not change anything.
- It only seems to you. Today, people see the difference between Thomas Anders and Eric Clapton. The same understanding will come in the evaluation of our performers. In "plastic" pop music there have always been and will be fans, without it there is no. Simply, they will be much less. The same thing will happen to the so-called "blatant" who will take his place, but not the one that is now.
- Is there anything positive happening in your professional environment?
- Very little. For example, Zemfira jumped out with the first song - it was interesting. The duet "Tatu" after the first song was also interesting. I always say in such cases: "Let's see what happens next." Then Zemfira and Tatu went badly. Lack of work on yourself always leads to the fact that you begin to repeat yourself. People are falling down glory, money, and then they do not know what to do. Therefore, they reproduce themselves at the same level as they were. With such a talent as the "Tatu", fuse enough for a year and a half. Many years ago, when I was studying at the institute (from 1969 to 1974), we had a pedagogic. And in one of the classes I was leading, I saw Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina. By that time she was already a People's Artist of Russia. And now she was sitting at her desk with a notebook and writing something down. A very big artist did not consider it humiliating to sit at a desk.
- YOU have a rather unique situation: you stand one foot in rock and roll, the other in opera music ...
- ... and the third foot I write symphonic music, and the fourth I write the music, and I am also a theorist and, thanks to Yuri Luzhkov and the government of Moscow, I build my own theater. I have a lot of legs and arms ... (laughs).
- I heard that you were allocated almost $ 21 million to build a theater.
- Under 22 - with construction and equipment. But the theater is an urban property, I will be only a leader in it.
- And who will you let in? After all, there are not so many worthy, according to your words.
- Anyone who will suit me. It is assumed that there will be shows, concerts, and movies. This is not a purely musical project.
- Your "Master and Margarita" - this will be a musical?
- This is a synthetic work with elements of opera, operetta, oratorio, musical, with pieces of rock-n-roll, jazz and even completely idiotic absurd theater. I have a libretto since 1975. And there is no certainty that this will ever be realized. But I will try.
- Is the work itself obsolete?
- How can high literature become obsolete?
- But you and Tarkovsky's films at first reveled, and then they disobeyed you.
- I do not really like intellectual cinema. Being a kid, I was delighted with Tarkovsky's "Mirror", I watched it nine times in a row. Now would fall asleep on the fifteenth minute. I'll explain why: then I was not intellectually developed, so for me all these things were new until I saw how Dali's paintings look and I did not read Vladimir Nabokov. But it happened by the age of 30. And today Tarkovsky is simply boring for me. Of all his films, I love only "Ivan's Childhood" and "Andrei Rublev," where there are almost no "Tarqovs". The horror is that I'm not that disappointed in Tarkovsky, I just stopped considering it a film production. In general, his films are a separate genre ...
- I AM confused with your life principles.
- And it's very difficult. My principles, as I want, so I change them (laughs).
- You somehow said: "I have one hell where to perform, it all depends on how much they pay. I can make it at least on the birthday of a bandy ...". How is this understood?
- I remember that at one of such events a man arose and said: "So, quietly, do not eat or drink, now Shurik will sing to us!" It amused me. We talked, drank on a glass - I did not become a bandit, they did not become intellectuals. But we brought joy to each other, to which we were capable. Professional work in this and is. Yes, you can afford to give up such things, but you have to earn a lot for this. And I do not earn much.
- Are not you afraid to be not in the "format"?
- My work is "informal" for all radio stations and TV channels. It is not designed for this. I made the album "Reader" as a slap to the fact that today in "format", what is considered music today! I'm not bragging, but this work has one veiled epithet: "Now you try to do something like that." In the task of the artist-athlete, the composer-athlete enters from time to time and this - you need to raise a finger and say: "One second, now I will show what you can compose and how to write." And then again to ambush, what I'm going to do ...
Vladimir POLUPANOV
Gennady Usoyev's photo