David Ashkenazi Biography

Twist to share him was buried in early spring. There were few words and many music. The civilian memorial service took place in the house of composers. Twenty -five years ago, musical Moscow said goodbye to the legend of the domestic stage David Vladimirovich Ashkenazi. Friends and colleagues called him a dodic. In this affectionate nickname there was neither familiarity nor disrespect - only warmth and immense respect.

David Ashkenazi was born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of an accountant. Parents were not going to teach his music, an older brother was engaged in the piano, and David played everything by hearing. And he would probably be a turner in Ebonite, which he successfully studied if it were not for one episode in the Kozhevnikov club, where he was asked to sit down for the piano. The boy’s musical fantasies impressed - David offered to compose music for a “living newspaper”.

It turned out successfully, and for some time all participants, including David, performed with this program at different venues. It was twenty -eighth year, the year, when the dumb movie was very popular. The session was usually accompanied by a pianist. Once, twelve-year-old David asked for permission from an elderly lady-concertmaster to play while showing a picture.

On the screen raged “gypsy love”, and David echoed her with stormy peals or lyrical tunes. Half a century later, the composer Nikita The Theologian wrote the song “Mumb Cinema”, which was performed by Valentina Tolkunov, accompanied by David Ashkenazi. Each time this song sounded, David Vladimirovich recalled himself as a twelve -year -old boy, enthusiastically experiencing all the vicissitudes of sentimental and comedic films of those distant years.

David liked playing the cinema, especially since they paid two rubles for a session, and for two rubles you could buy three chocolate tiles. There was an opportunity to earn and help the family. At this time, the decision came to seriously learn to music. Nevertheless, David thinks about music as a profession when local artists begin to invite him to participate in serious concerts.

In the year, David graduates from a music school, and in M ​​his wife, a student of the theater school Evstolia Grigoryevna, gives him the son of Vladimir, who was destined to glorify the surname of Ashkenazi. By the way, when I interviewed David Vladimirovich for a music magazine, he, a man of extraordinary modesty, was sincerely surprised that the material would be about him, and not about his son, the world famous pianist and conductor.

David Vladimirovich fell into Moscow at the invitation of the professor of the Moscow Conservatory of Shatzkes, who invited the young musician to visit his class. There was nowhere to live, I had to rent a room with my family. At that time, Ashkenazi met with the popular singer Vadim Kozin, and their many years of fruitful community began. In the forty -first year, when the war began, David Vladimirovich sent his wife and son to Gorky, and himself, along with Kozin, traveled around the country and served military units.

I had to perform in different conditions. I remembered, for example, one concert at the airfield, when the pilots listened to the performance, sitting in the cabins of aircraft in full combat readiness. At the signal of anxiety, they flew out on the task and, if they could, returned to the performance. From the archive of Valentina Tolkunova, David Ashkenazi was at that time so popular that he received a delay from the army, but he served the whole war at his post.

Concert brigades in the country moved by rail, in the car, where the piano stood. At the front sites, David played on the accordion. And in the year there was a misfortune - Kozin was arrested. He was charged with the decomposition of the army, anti -Soviet conversations, the decadent mood of his songs, which did not correspond to the cheerful works of most of the then composers.

The arrest of Kozin left David Vladimirovich without a soloist. It was necessary to start a new life. Those years were marked by cooperation with Rashid Beibutov, Isabella Yuryeva, and after the war, working in the stage of stage. Not many of our contemporaries know and remember that David Vladimirovich accompanied Alla Solenkova in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, concerts in Finland with Irina Arkhipova, and, according to him, “experienced the same pleasure and high satisfaction, as when working with my beloved singers, Claudia Shulzhenko, Mark Bernes, Leonid Utesov.” In the seventies, David Vladimirovich began cooperation with Valentina Tolkunova, becomes her teacher, moral and artistic tuning for the stage.

In the young singer, he was attracted by immediacy, modesty, purity and transparency of his voice. We met with Kozin in Magadan, almost half a century after the tragic events. As in those distant years, he was very popular, and every resident of the city could show the path to his lonely home. " Shortly before his eightieth anniversary, David Vladimirovich became seriously ill.

He was “knocked out of the saddle” somehow immediately, unexpectedly, and was confused: he did not imagine his life without music. As soon as a little better, David Vladimirovich began to train his fingers.First on a hospital bedside table, then at home, on the piano. To the joy of relatives and friends, he was able to attend the actor’s house at an evening dedicated to his anniversary.

The guests parade were opened by Boris Brunov, giving the floor to Vladimir Zeldin, a unique “dance teacher”. Zeldin replaces Alexander Pakhmutov, then Joseph Kobzon, who performs a romance addressed to David Vladimirovich: “You are not yet old, but no longer a young ...”. When he performs with the singer, I want to listen to every loss. You perceive the accompaniment with the same interest as the vocal part.

Low bow to the Patriarch of the Russian stage. " Lyudmila Gurchenko: “Fate brought me to David Vladimirovich in the early seventies, when we were on trips together. The tour took place in the most deaf back streets of our country. Severe winter and unheated rooms. Dull light, snow on felt boots, hands froze to the microphone. On the stage of the piano without half the keys, followed by a wizard Ashkenazi.

We gave three or four concerts a day, including the “team of the hodgepodge”, where David Vladimirovich had to accompany all participants, even those whom he saw for the first time, and every time a fantastic success! Juggles, singers, even acrobats - and everyone rehearses with their father. Today they talked a lot about his special talent. I owe my father musical education. The gift of free reading from the sheet, the ability to improvise is from it ...

Words, words are warm, soulful, grateful. And most importantly - the wishes of health and the hope that very soon the fans of David Vladimirovich will hear: “Royal David Ashkenazi” ...

did not hear, did not come true.