USSR DAUGHTER ALEXANDER Pakhmutov
The composer of the century called Alexander Pakhmutova Lev Leschenko. We think that not only people of the Soviet generation will agree with this, but also those who over the last quarter of a century have been able to realize the full power of Alexandra Nikolaevna’s work. Only seven notes it took this great woman composer to create outstanding musical accompaniment of an entire era.
Through the war – into the music
It looks like a small and incredibly fragile woman could take a big place in the life of a huge country. She became a symbol of Soviet creativity, survived both happy and difficult years, but served exclusively her talent. Musicians say that the happy fate of a song is five years, and Pakhmutova’s songs have been sung for decades. All in all, more than 400 were written. Analogue to this phenomenal record, probably, cannot be found all over the world. Her songs are not destined to grow old, they are doomed to eternal life and popularity, despite the change of generations, countries and eras.
The first sounds of music Alexandra heard from her father, who played the accordion, piano, violin and other instruments. Alya, as her closest people call her, was born in the village of Beketovka by the composer Alexandra Pakhmutovav on the outskirts of Stalingrad on November 9, 1929. Mom encouraged the child to be attracted to creativity and took the train to Stalingrad to study at a music school. There, in the first war years, the girl heard the formidable sounds of exploding shells. The family lived in evacuation in Karaganda for a year. Alexandra continued studying music, composed melodies and songs, and then asked her parents to send her to Moscow to continue their education. In 1943, his father succumbed to the entreaties and took his daughter to the metropolitan music school at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Five years later, a talented girl became a student of the composition department and later graduated from graduate school.
Young composer Alexander Pakhmutova
A 1944 film was preserved in the archives of the Conservatory with a recording of one of the lessons of Ali Pakhmutova in the class of composer Vissarion Shebalin. Behind the scenes, the announcer says that the second part of the Pakhmutova sonata is being performed by the same author. Vissarion Yakovlevich listens attentively and gives some recommendations. These unique shots demonstrate the talent Alexander Pakhmutova already had in her early youth. composer Alexander Pakhmutova The speaker noted that this is still an unknown composer – Alya Pakhmutova. It is unlikely that the announcer could have imagined how little time is left before the name of this young composer will thunder throughout the Soviet Union.
After the conservatory, Alexander Pakhmutova devoted herself to classical music, and over time began to create small masterpieces called songs, which made her a world-famous composer. No one doubts that her genius would manifest itself in any musical genre, but the fate of a lifetime associated it with a thread of song creativity.
Woman who sing
Each of her songs has its own unique destiny, and each – like a new child – matured, born, nurtured and released to the free composer Alexander Pakhmutov swimming. Perhaps that is why she has no children. Speaking about Alexander Pakhmutova, it is impossible to separate her from her husband, the outstanding songwriter Nikolai Dobronravov. Their meeting took place during the “thaw” in the radio studio, where both had to record a children’s song “Boat of the Motor”. On it, they sailed through the waves of life, and for more than half a century they have been experiencing joys and sorrows together, composing poems and songs. Nikolai Nikolaevich and Alexandra Nikolaevna traveled the length and breadth of the entire Soviet Union, wrote hundreds of famous songs about the construction of hydroelectric power stations and BAM, geologists and astronauts, Komsomol members and athletes, accompanying the era together. Entire cycles of songs were devoted to children and youth. Even the songs created “by request”, Pakhmutova filled with such sincerity and tenderness, put into them the depth of his soul.
A whole arsenal of songs was written for children. Alexander Pakhmutov always quotes the composer Dmitry Kabalevsky, who said that each composer must create at least one piece for children per year. Alexandra Nikolaevna steadily followed this rule.
How young we were
When creating this or that song, Alexandra Pakhmutova clearly imagined who the composer Alexandra Pakhmutova – Muslim Magomayev or Iosif Kobzon, Lev Leschenko or Yury Gulyaev, Maya Kristalinskaya or Edita Pyekha, Edward Gil or Valery Obodzinsky, Sofia Rotaru, Anna German or Valentina — should perform. Tolkunova. Her songs dreamed and now the most eminent performers dream to sing. Not a whole page is enough to list only the names of those for whom she wrote her star creations.
Of course, not all the songs were understood and accepted by the artistic council the first time, some were put under the cloth at all, but Alexander Pakhmutova never fell into despair, did not save offenses and continued to work, devoting time only to creating more interesting songs.
