JAN FRENKEL: FOR JOY TO ALL
Some “Cranes” would be more than enough for Jan Frenkel to enter the history of music and become a popularly favorite composer. But the same became popular “Russian field”, “Old Waltz”, “Chase”, “Textile town” and other compositions. “My song is me,” said Yan Abramovich, revealing a completely different facet of his talent each time.
The violin as medicine
Having once taken a violin in his hands, a four-year-old boy began to embody the father’s dream of making a son of a famous musician. Then the tool literally saved the life of a child. In childhood, he was constantly overwhelmed with illness. And when the doctors discovered tuberculosis in the boy, they made a terrible sentence – any draft could kill little Jan. Then the father found a way to tie his son to the house and almost keep him out of the street – he gave him a violin, forced him to play for several hours, instilled a love for music, which predetermined the fate of his son.
Jan was born in the family of the Kiev hairdresser Abram Fraenkel on November 21, 1920. The composer Jan Frenkeltak is said by official sources. In fact, this happened only five years later, but more on that later. In the meantime, the boy pored over the musical diploma under the watchful supervision of his father, who was self-taught. Yang recalled that his father’s hairdressing services were constantly accompanied by musical accompaniment. Apologizing to the client, Abram Natanovich approached Jan and silently pulled his ear, making it clear that he was false, then he turned around and returned to work. From early childhood, the elder Frankel convinced the younger that the future life directly depends on the quality of his game. A wise Jewish father was right.
Talented young man
The story did not preserve the exact information about where the young Jan Frenkel heard Jacob Magaziner – a famous teacher of the music school in Kiev, but this meeting ended for the future musician with enrollment right into the third grade. The level of his game hit the professor. It was not hard for Jan to enter the Moscow Conservatory to the violin department. There, he honed his mastery under the leadership of composer Jan Frenkeltoy, the same Retailer, and professor Boris Lyatoshinsky taught him the composition.
The Great Patriotic War found Yana a student at the Conservatory. The young man made the decision to “grow up” in one day and forged himself the documents, according to which he became five years older. In the Orenburg anti-aircraft school, where he went to enroll, no one doubted the veracity of this information about age, after all, at the age of 15, he was almost two meters tall and of strong build. The atmosphere of the school inspired Yana to write the first song in her life called “Shelled the Pilot on the Lane”.
From the school of Jan Frenkel taken to the front. He fought a whole year, and then received a severe wound. The military doctor at the hospital almost put a cross on the wounded man, relying only on a miracle, and it happened. Yang recovered and even went to the artistic brigade, which raised the morale of the soldiers until the end of the war. It was in these difficult years and bright spot – a young musician met at the front with his future wife Natalia Melikova. The wise woman, who was 14 years older than Yana, became his lifelong companion.
Jan Frenkel in musical slavery
After the war, the family stayed in Moscow. Like many at that time – they huddled in a communal apartment, in the same place they had the only daughter Nina. The main attributes of the room were a piano and a wardrobe with notes. Composer Yan Frenkel For many years, Yan Abramovich played in the capital’s restaurants in the evenings to feed his family, and during the day he worked as a “musical slave” for eminent members of the USSR Union of Composers — copied scores for them and made arrangements for their works.
After the first military song 18 long years passed. During this time, Jan Frenkel amassed in himself such a potential, which literally fired a succession of songs, beloved throughout the country. This happened thanks to his friend, the composer Oscar Feltsman. He introduced Frankel to talented poets Mikhail Tanich, Konstantin Vanshenkin, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Inna Goff, in collaboration with which touching and soulful songs “Textile Town”, “Old Waltz” and others were born.
But then he could not even compare himself with such venerable composers as Mark Fradkin, Nikita Bogoslovsky, Eduard Kolmanovsky or Alexander Pakhmutov.
The recognition came to Yan Abramovich unexpectedly, when his arrangements sounded on the radio, cartoons began to be accompanied by his melodies, and directors composer Jan Frenkelfilmov began to offer him to write songs for their films.
The popularity of these songs was so large-scale that it caused jealousy and even envy in the circles of honored composers. Without a trace of such a takeoff simply could not. And soon, Yan Abramovich came under a barrage of criticism and harassment in the Union of Composers. His work was called unpromising. At one of the meetings there was a question about his exclusion from the professional community. The case took a serious turn.
