Famous replica from the amphitheater of the concert hall. Tchaikovsky October 23, 2018 before the anniversary performance of the academic Ural State Folk Choir:
Look, they’re sitting from Pyatnitsky, they’ve come to listen to competitors.
When Leo Christiansen in 1960 was invited to lead the choir to them. Pyatnitsky with a move to Moscow and the corresponding preferences, he refused. For today's showmen, the reason will seem stupid: the head of the Sverdlovsk Conservatory and the founder of the Ural Choir did not like the performing style of the most eminent Soviet singing group: he believed that there were problems with the true nationality.
A replica from the queue to the wardrobe at the end:
As you want, but I liked the Urals more than Pyatnitsky last time! Such a mood, such a flavor!
The folk choir is ...
Fashionable tendencies to create cover versions of folk tunes based on the original, on the one hand, popularize folklore, and on the other, distort the true melody of sound. In 1945, Khristiansen asked to preserve manners and local features in the originals, he really wanted the choir founded by him to become a reserve of Ural folklore.
Today, like all 75 years, the Urals do not strive for easy success, do not try to break applause with each program number. Rarely do they pause without demanding applause and even stopping them so that the next story in life does not interrupt. To bring a spark - true, real, to awaken the soul - this is the covenant performed by vocalists, musicians and dancers of the Ural Folk Choir to this day.
Ural - they are special
The costumes of the artists are not full of rhinestones and look a little like the concert clothing of celebrities: they are sewn according to the canons of the Ural costume. Sundresses and dresses, which have always been decorated in moderation, today very accurately emphasize the style of the outback and do not turn the performance into a podium show of “diamonds”.
The lack of synthetic music, negative phonograms touches the audience. No “plywood”, sound lotions and effects, only the professionalism of accordionists, balalaika players, domrists. There is a flute, harp, double bass and drum kit. The ensemble of folk instruments, where a third are laureates of all-Russian and international competitions, is in the back of the stage, behind the backs of the singers. But, invisible to the audience, they are full participants in the performance, only once performing an instrumental number in their own processing. Amazingly, they play without music sheets and music stands - from memory.
The brightest and most moving part is the choreographic group. This is where it would be possible to give out stylized modern folk movements, but even here the compositions are carefully built from the patterned folk elements of Russian, Ukrainian, Bashkir, Tatar dances. Unless the shamans of Mansi are a kind of fantasy, and the design of the dance is built in a modern way, but the national color is in the first place. And they light no less than modern ballet!
The basis of the composition are the vocalists, which you will not confuse with anyone. The fact is that they sing in their usual dialect with a “perk”, and this distinctive pronunciation immediately makes the vocal ensemble exclusive.
The repertoire makes unique the folk choir, where the ancient chants of the Urals, collected in villages by Leo Christiansen, have been preserved. There are no fashionable pop hits, except for their own.
Separate words deserve the stage mobility of the singers. They actively participate in productions and sketches, create a dance crowd and conduct round dances themselves, combining with singing. These creative people have overturned the idea of horoviks, who are usually powerful and static in one place.
The beginning of the glorious path
How carefully they treat the repertoire here, they carefully keep their history. Not only the names of the creators and leaders remember the tour and “abroad”: the premiere of songs, the names of poets and composers of the Urals, their photographs are recorded in the history of the singing ensemble. The next historiographer since 1975 is veteran Valentin Blinova.
In the terrible 1943, when the Soviet Union opposed fascism in World War II, an order of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the Bolshevik Communist Party created a choir of Russian songs. The musicologist and folklore collector Lev Khristiansen, choreographer Olga Knyazeva, choirmaster Neonilla Malginova stood at the origins. Singers and dancers were recruited from the people: collective farmers, librarians, turners, nurses who passed the conservative "casting" came from cities and villages of the region.
The first concert was held on November 12, 1944. The program sounded the old motives of the Urals (they can still be heard today), then there were tours on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. For the first time on the stage of the Moscow Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky concert of the Ural folk choir was held in 1947. Touring the cities of the USSR, Union republics and the native Urals, performances at the Bolshoi Theater, Central House of Arts (1950) helped to gain professionalism, check the repertoire and their strengths.
The first trip abroad brought the team the title of laureate of the first degree. It happened at the III World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin. The German newspaper wrote an enthusiastic response, recording that a big dance caused a ten-minute (!) Standing ovation. The Soviet anthem of democratic youth sang the entire hall in different languages.
They are made for each other.
This statement is not about the family - about Evgeny Rodygin and the Ural folk choir. Having been seriously wounded on the eve of the Victory, Senior Sergeant Rodygin in the hospital tied an accordion to himself and spoke to the wounded. He wanted to become a composer, so he entered the conservatory. It was there that Christiansen noticed him and invited him to him. Veteran artists say that the works of Yevgeny Rodygin made the vocalists famous and popular. In the second half of the 20th century it was very difficult to get tickets for their solo album - always a full house, always a standing ovation.
In 1953, the composer wrote The Ural Mountain Ash. The song was not immediately accepted into the work, but when it sounded, it became a hit and a hallmark of the choir. The composer writes a lot, interestingly, but what about the nationality? Firstly, he works with texts collected in the villages of the Urals. Secondly, the melody of his songs is such that the sophisticated viewer did not immediately recognize the author's work, many of his works are considered folk: “Bird cherry sways under the window”, “Sverdlovsk waltz”, “White snow”, etc.
Counting decades
The team celebrated its first big anniversary (10 years) in Romania, by that time the fourth European country was already listening to their program. Over the 75 years of its existence, songs of the Ural Folk Choir have been listened to in more than 50 countries of the world, in some it has been repeatedly.
In 1965, the Urals first performed in Czechoslovakia: the Sverdlovsk region became the twin city of this country, and the choir, as an ambassador of goodwill, toured seven times first in Czechoslovakia, then in the Czech Republic. It is difficult to understand how this creativity is perceived in the east, but most of these territories have welcomed them more than once. Kim Il Sung personally invited to Korea.
Applauded to artists France, Italy, East Germany, Japan. They conquered Vietnam with their vocals and dances. Together with the Semeru dancers, the Turks and stern Norwegians danced. Many times they became laureates, diploma winners of international and Russian festivals. This group, the only one from the music, in 1989 spoke to the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident during the tragedy.
In 1996, the team received the title of academic (in Russia there are about 20 of them - this is the elite). The Ural people warmly and solemnly celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leo Christiansen, whose luxurious heritage they still use. Three years ago, it was this team that represented Russia at the World Festival of Cultures in India. In 2016, the tour marked the 60th anniversary of the hit "White Snow". In 2018, the unofficial hymn of the choir “Ural Ryabinushka” was 65 years old. The celebration was attended by the author - composer Evgeny Rodygin.
Today
The long journey of the song-dance collective was not easy: it, together with the country, experienced collapse and tragedy, perestroika and wild capitalism. But, to the honor of the Urals, they never turned onto more profitable paths, "to the need of the crowd." Their road was straight, therefore they became the standard of the stage display of folklore of the Urals.
More than one thousand songs during the existence of the Ural folk choir, they showed the world. Today there are more than a hundred in the repertoire, but these are other productions, wiring, costumes. Originality and style remain unchanged - a soft manner of singing, lyrical sound, a specific dialect. There is no breadth of the range of three octaves - this is not characteristic of folk singing, but the purity of sound, coherence and strength are present.
Like 75 years ago, the repertoire is based on diverse works (fiction, lyrical, wedding, dance). Of course, the Urals sing new works by local authors, and the dances of the ballet group make mini-performances out of songs.
The folklore group participates in Orthodox events, creates programs of a patriotic orientation. Love for the Fatherland is a bridge from the Ural Mountain Ashberry to songs about the whole country. There are other patriotic compositions in the repertoire of the Ural folk choir “Mother Russia”. In May, a new composition started - “My soul is Russia”, in June they sang for the participants of the World Cup, in October they stood on the stage of the Concert Hall named after Tchaikovsky, and the Moscow elite standing up applauded and did not let go.
Uralians are looking for new tunes, other forms of presentation, other possibilities of arrangements. But at the same time, they remain faithful to cultural traditions. The State Academic Ural Folk Choir remains the keeper of the original culture of the Urals, propagandizes folklore in all its manifestations. His creative style is unique and in demand.