Then Leonid Ovrutsky, Anton Sergeev, Denis Vertunov and Anton Boglevsky were expected to win the Five Stars competition in Sochi, and then endless tours and performances. Today they are permanent participants of the City Days, official receptions of the President of Russia, and governor's balls. The production projects of Quatro, Eternal Music to the Eternal City, Grandchildren to Veterans, and the classic show Boring Opera are supported at the state level. And after the traditional March concert in the Kremlin, I found out that the band members are celebrating their anniversary - 25 years on stage (the guys started singing from the first grade)! And then other incredible facts from the life of the four were revealed.
The program of the annual charity concert in front of the Bolshoi Theater "Quatro" necessarily adds a special number - a performance by the Boys' Choir from the Academy of Choral Art. The graduates of this educational institution themselves, Leonid, Anton, Denis and Anton, recall how they ran to the rehearsals of Viktor Sergeevich Popov, the founder of the Bolshoi Children's Choir, which constantly flashed on central television at that time. The competition for the team was huge - 15 people per place. With special pleasure, the guys performed such hits in the BDH as “The Dog Is Missing” and “A Coward Doesn't Play Hockey”.
The first listener of the vociferous four (the group did not yet have a name) was the janitor, who, taking pity on young talents, opened a children's class for them at night for rehearsals. The guys did not plan to unite in a quartet. Everyone was pursuing their own careers: opera, symphony conducting, motorsport, one of the participants wanted to go to the monastery. But the dream of a professional stage took over. And years later, Quatro entered the most prestigious venues in the country and the world. Even the audience at the Royal Albert Hall in London applauded them.
Having learned that their pupils were going to perform not only the classics, but also pop hits, the teachers first obstructed them, but when they saw how seriously the boys take their work, they changed their attitude.
Once, in their senior year, the four almost got expelled. Leonid Ovrutsky says: “We were invited to France to the famous music festival in the city of Colmar. We knew how much Vladimir Spivakov did for the prestige of this festival, so upon arrival we decided to start rehearsing right on the central square. There are many restaurants, street musicians, the atmosphere for creativity is the most inviting. After several songs we were surrounded by a dense crowd of tourists, coins were falling on the asphalt, but suddenly we notice that our director, although shouting “Bravo!” along with everyone else, is giving us strange signs. It turned out that Vladimir Spivakov was sitting and having lunch ten meters away, and in the company of our rector Viktor Popov. On stiff legs, we approached, said hello, but it did not help. Viktor Sergeevich said that we would dishonor the educational institution and we would not receive diplomas. Only in Moscow did he change his anger to mercy, and we were restored.”
At the beginning of their career, in order to be noticed, they tried to take part in all competitions. In The Secret of Success, Valery Meladze invited the group members to be backing vocalists, and after the New Wave qualifying round, the jury members gave them a standing ovation. Further, however, the quartet did not go through, the judges explained that if the guys were allowed to reach the final, they would have no one to compete with.
When Anton Sergeev's daughter was born - she became the first child in Quatro (today there are already three in their "kindergarten") - the guys were in such a hurry from the concert to the maternity hospital that they crashed into each other on the way. The first tour took place in Italy, where they arrived with suitcases full of canned food. There was no talk of a fee then, but the guys were able to record a start-up album with the per diem allowance.
Anton Sergeev, Anton Boglevsky, Leonid Ovrutsky and Denis Vertunov, together with the Quatro group, took third place in the final of the Eurovision qualifying round, although many predicted they would win. The guys told ZhG about their hopes and beloved girls who supported them.
We will not dispute the results of the competition
– To be honest, are you satisfied with the third place?
Anton Boglevsky: And the fact that we were in the top three with such a wonderful singer as Valeria also means a lot to us.
Denis: In general, we asked all our fans to vote for Anastasia Prikhodko. Still, the competition was held on March 8 (laughs).
Anton Sergeev: For those who do not understand: Denis just joked.
- Iosif Prigogine is sure that the results are rigged and they need to be protested.
Leonid: And he also said: it would be nice if the Quatro group participated in Eurovision. Hearing this from his lips is worth a lot.
Anton Sergeev: We are not going to protest anything personally. If Prigogine wants to change something, it is his right.
- Will you try to go to the competition in a year?
Leonid: We are still arguing in the group, is it worth trying again or enough.
- They say that at the competition you were going to rock with Olympic champions Nastya Myskina, Sveta Khorkina, Ira Slutskaya and Sveta Masterkova?
- We sang with them in the program "Two Stars" of "Channel One". We met before filming, then we all went to a restaurant together. And they came up with this story: like it would be great to perform at Eurovision together. Bilan had one Plushenko, and we have four champions. So your chances of winning are quadrupled.
Anton Sergeev: True, we would love to compete with them, but it so happened that our champions are very busy now. They are not up to us.
Nastya Myskina fell in love with Denis
- Who did you like more - Nastya, Ira, Sveta Khorkina or Sveta Masterkova?
Leonid: Denis liked Myskina!
Anton Sergeev: And Myskina - Denis. So they fell in love with each other...
- Denis, tell us the details soon!
Denis (downcast eyes): I don't know what to tell.
- Did you kiss?
- Immodest question.
Leonid: Well done, Denis. Nothing needs to be said. Girls don't like talkative guys.
Anton Sergeev (quickly shifting the conversation to another topic): Our champions, by the way, got us hooked on sports. And each to their own.
Anton Boglevsky: Now we both skate and play tennis...
Denis: And we sit on the twine - on the longitudinal and transverse.
What girls are you attracted to in life?
Leonid: These two (points to Antonov) are attracted by their wives. And Denis is a Don Juan with us - he loves all women, from 15 to 50 years old. (Laugh.)
Anton Sergeev: And I love not only my wife. But also my daughter. She was born in November. Future actress. She was a little over three months old when she starred in our video.
Have you met crazy fans?
Anton Boglevsky: Recently, at a concert in Perm, one temperamental lady almost turned our quartet into a trio. She made an attempt on the life of Denis.
Did he not love her?
Denis: She was kind of strange. She ran up to me backstage, all disheveled, and shot fireworks in my face. Either she wanted to congratulate me on the beginning of spring, or she expressed her joy at meeting me, I did not understand. But he almost lost his eyes.
Anton Sergeev: But we normally treat even such manifestations of fan love. It’s a young thing: emotions, hormones, spring…
We got kicked out of the academy for trying to make money
– Where are you from?
Leonid: We are all Muscovites.
Denis: They all studied at the same institution - at the Academy of Choral Art. They met there and started singing together.
Leonid: And then the four of us were kicked out of there!
Anton Sergeev: Do you think it's worth talking about it?
Leonidas: Why not? People have the right to know the truth about us.
- They kicked you out for what?
- Once we flew on tour to the French town of Colmar. At the same time, there was a concert of the Canadian singer Garou. We really wanted to get to this celebration of life. But we had money, the cat cried. And we decided to earn. They stood on the square, put their hats next to them, pretended to be street musicians - they sang world hits in different languages.
Anton Boglevsky: And everything went fine until we heard unambiguous pops. It turned out that all this time our artistic director from the academy was standing nearby. It ended up there quite by accident. However, to put it mildly, he did not like our behavior very much.
Anton Sergeev: As a result, we were kicked out of the academy. But we saw this as a good sign and, taking advantage of the opportunity, united in a group.
Denis: Then, of course, we were reinstated. Probably for talent.
What do you do in your free time from music?
Denis: Love.
Leonid: And sports. Between music and love. We skate, play tennis, run...
Anton Boglevsky: I am a car maniac. Everything about cars drives me crazy.
Anton Sergeev: Since my daughter was born, I try to spend as much time with her as possible. Children grow up fast - I don't want to miss anything.
Leonid: In general, from time to time we are thrown into a variety of areas - from yoga to lectures on the history of impressionism. We are passionate and curious people.
Leonid Ovrutsky is a soloist of the Moscow vocal group "QUATRO", in which four graduates of the Academy of Choral Art named after. A. V. Sveshnikova. It was formed in 2003 and rose to prominence in 2008 when it won first place in the Five Stars competition. A year later, the young team participated in the qualifying round of candidates for Eurovision 2009 and entered the top three. The producer and composer of "QUATRO" is Leonid. He enjoys the great interest of fans who would very much like to know if Leonid Ovrutsky has a wife.
All four of them graduated from the Academy with honors and organized their group in such a way that their voices fill the full range of sounds and allow them to sing a work of almost any complexity. Leonid Ovrutsky has a baritone, Anton Sergeev and Anton Boglevsky have a tenor, Denis Vertunov has a bass. In the performance of this unique group, both classics, and romances, and modern hits, and an author's song are equally good at hearing - the impossible does not exist for them.
Concerts of "QUATRO" captivate listeners and especially women. All the fair sex from 12 to 80 years old instantly fall in love with these young men. Such popularity can not only flatter, but also annoy. Only the marital status of Anton Sergeev is reliably known: he has a little daughter, and, of course, a wife. There are rumors that Anton Boglevsky is also not free, but his girlfriend or wife is not openly discussed. Denis and Leonid do not advertise their hobbies.
Once Ovrutsky let slip that falling in love helps him both sing and live, and when asked what kind of girls he likes, he jokingly recalled the case of two sexy-dressed beauties who almost disrupted their concert with their seductive appearance. Declared by online magazine "Marie Claire" one of the most eligible suitors of 2016, Leonid has a very clear idea of who could become his girlfriend: "I know for sure that we will find each other and immediately understand it."
The future wife of Leonid Ovrutsky, according to his ideas, should be wise and able, without encroaching on his freedom, to free them from the routine and chaos of everyday life. Become not its faceless shadow, but its continuation, having its own personality and opinion. No matter how his beloved looks, the main thing that he will focus on in their union is the spiritual and moral fusion of two people who are ready to understand and take care of their soul mate. This is how, approximately, the minimum program looks like for lovers in love and those who want to try their luck.
“The RMA Business School gave me new knowledge, betrayed my self-confidence, opened up new horizons. RMA introduced me closely to the world of show business, here I found a large number of friends in this field, I even managed to work with many of them. Now I periodically cross paths with some RMA students and teachers at events, concerts, we always remember the time of training with warmth.
On January 27, the concert "Element" of the vocal group "Quattro" will take place in the House of Music. One of the soloists is a graduate of the faculty . On the eve of the concert, Danila answered several questions for our website.
Anton Boglevsky, Anton Sergeev, Leonid Ovrutsky, Danila Karzanov
Tell us about the program "Elements", in the announcement it is said that this is an absolute premiere?
Yes, it really is an absolute premiere! In my memory, none of the Russian artists have ever made such a synthesis of songs and poems. I am sure that this will be an incredibly exciting and educational journey for the viewer, and it will be interesting for both the older generation and the youth. The Elements program is filled with the works of great poets: the program contains many lyrical compositions, romances and the most beloved Soviet songs, there will also be poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Sergei Yesenin, Afanasy Fet, Alexander Blok and other great ones that we will read for our viewers.
How is the preparation for the concert going?
Not so long ago, we had the premiere of the New Year's program "Russian Winter", which took place in the Crocus City Hall. This is a big show staged by Viktor Kramer with the participation of the best representatives of rhythmic gymnastics - pupils of Irina Viner. With all seriousness, we approached the preparation of this show, which, it should be noted, went off with a bang. Then there were the New Year holidays - also, as you know, a hot time for an artist. In parallel with all this, we began to prepare for the show "Elements", to select songs and poems. After the New Year's performances, they took a short time out, took a breath, and now they resumed preparations with renewed vigor - many hours of daily rehearsals. All in the usual, favorite mode.
You started performing with the Quatro group in 2017, tell us how did you start working together?
A year ago, I could not even imagine that I would sing in the Quatro group, at that time I was the soloist of another group. I had a creative crisis: I suddenly began to realize that I had stopped enjoying what I was doing, that I had lost the meaning ... As a result, I had to leave the group for free swimming. I started writing songs, started thinking about a solo project.
Some time later, the artistic director of the Quatro group, Leonid Ovrutsky, called me and offered to work with them, without thinking twice, I agreed. I have known the guys from Quatro for a long time, we studied at the same educational institution (A. V. Sveshnikov Academy of Choral Art - RMA note), perhaps that is why we “sang together” so quickly. From the first rehearsal, I felt at ease. Now, looking back and looking forward, I realize what my soul demanded and what I was going for all this time.
Tours in Russia, Israel and America are scheduled until May, how do you like this schedule?
Touring is a familiar way of life for me, I have been touring since I was 10 years old. But trips with Quatro are a special pleasure: new venues, an unforgettable reception, and the very atmosphere in the team is very pleasant, friendly, creative.
I love my job, I love the stage, I love this process.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask about the RMA - what are your impressions from the training?
Every educational point in my life has helped me get where I am today. The faculty gave me new knowledge, betrayed my self-confidence, opened up new horizons. RMA introduced me closely to the world of show business, here I found a large number of friends in this field, I even managed to work with many of them. Now I periodically cross paths with some RMA students and teachers at events, concerts, we always remember the time of training with warmth.
Our guests were members of the Quatro vocal group Anton Sergeev and Anton Boglevsky.
We talked with our guests about their work, about the unification of different musical trends and about the performance of church musical works.
V. Emelyanov
Hello, you are listening to the Bright Evening program in the studio of Vladimir Emelyanov and Alla Mitrofanova.
A. Mitrofanova
Good "Bright Evening".
V. Emelyanov
Today we are meeting with a Moscow vocal group called Quatro, or rather with a part of it, today we are getting a duet called Quatro. Two members of this group.
A. Mitrofanova
Two tenors, concert of two tenors on radio "Vera".
V. Emelyanov
Anton Sergeev and Anton Boglevsky, let's get acquainted, because there are two Antons, and how to understand which of you is who, and we don't know each other personally, is still impossible for me.
A. Sergeev
Good evening, I'm Anton Sergeev, if you can recognize me by my voice.
A. Mitrofanova
Of course we can.
A. Boglevsky
Good evening, I'm Anton Boglevsky, well, actually, nothing complicated, because if you look at our posters, then, as a rule, the first two are on the left.
A. Sergeev
Our alignment, since we started talking about it right away, went on a very long time ago, when we were just formed. We were formed as a cappella group, so we have a bass, baritone, such a dramatic tenor, and a lyrical tenor, so according to Chesnokov we always got up in this order: bass, baritone, tenor, tenor. And so it remained.
V. Emelyanov
The team is 13 years old, it should be noted.
A. Mitrofanova
We were founded in 2003 already, this is already a serious age, by the way.
A. Sergeev
We ourselves are surprised, you know, when we used to walk the streets and see posters of other bands, where it was written “We are 10 years old”, we thought: “Well, this is impossible !!!”, and now we ourselves have passed this milestone, and we understand that time flies fast. But, in fact, the team is 13 years old, maybe you will be even more surprised now, we have known each other since 6 years.
V. Emelyanov
This is where we will start, because it all started, as I understand it, in the Sveshnikov children's choir. There were three main choirs in Moscow, maybe I'm confusing, but, nevertheless: the children's choir of television and radio under the direction of Popov, the Sveshnikov choir, the Moscow boys' choir still existed. Maybe you can name some other educational institutions, but I know these three, I don’t want to say that they were competitors, but, perhaps, they were the most famous. It is unrealistically difficult to get into the boys' chapel, the Sveshnikov choir, and even more so the Popov choir, which was so exposed, we know so many soloists, we know several dozen of these soloists. It seems to me that the Sveshnikov choir was a little less, not only popular, but a little less popular.
A. Sergeev
I think you are a little confused.
V. Emelyanov
All the porridge, right?
A. Sergeev
Yes. A large children's choir ... yes, indeed, the artistic director there was Oleg Sergeevich Popov, but at the Sveshnikov School Oleg Sergeevich Popov was also the artistic director, that is, these are two large choirs led by Popov. It’s just that girls also participated in a large children’s choir, but only boys were taken to the choir school, and, by the way, when I entered, when Anton and I entered, there was a very big competition. Here I had, in my opinion, almost 25 people in one place.
A. Mitrofanova
You were 6 years old and you entered?
A. Sergeev
No, I entered a little later, Anton was from the first grade, and I was from the third. And my mother is just an amazing person, I myself was born in the city of Norilsk, it’s very far away, and she decided that I still need to do it, and we arrived, the time for selection had already passed, and still my mother got through: “Listen, listen” (and I have been singing since childhood). And they listened to me and took me after school hours, despite the fact that there were no more places in the state, but they took me. And so my personal creative life began, because I stayed to study at the boarding school at the academy, that is, I don’t know, at that time it was such a step on my mother’s side, quite serious ... to leave the child ...
A. Mitrofanova
Selfless, I would say, when a mother leaves her son like this in this crazy city.
A. Sergeev
I was 8 years old.
A. Mitrofanova
And you are alone here, in the school. Didn't you want to go home?
A. Sergeev
I have a brother here, thank God, was the eldest native ...
V. Emelyanov
At first, probably, I wanted to, and then from the age of 10 - not really ...
A. Sergeev
And then there, you know, you get so involved when you get into this atmosphere, this creativity, these tours abroad. In the 90s, it's just something unprecedented, it's addictive. Our training was built in such a way that you competed all the time, you wanted to be the best, they set you up like that, if you were the worst, you were expelled and that's all, and they forgot about it. And everyone was determined to become a soloist, to go on tour, to study, it seems to me that when such a message comes as a child, this is very good.
V. Emelyanov
But after all, competition also causes a feeling of envy, which is not good.
A. Mitrofanova
And jealousy, a whole bunch of side effects.
V. Emelyanov
The girls are ballet, they almost put broken glass into the Czechs for competitors. But what about the vocalists? What can be salty? Some kind of purgen or laxative, I don't know. What do you have?
A. Boglevsky
Yes, no, in vocals, in any other business: the one who works more, the one who is more attentive, more critical of himself, he achieves success.
V. Emelyanov
No, well, it's a perfect boring picture...
A. Boglevsky
It's boring, but it's the only thing that can save you if you don't know how to look for some moves, clever moments.
A. Sergeev
But the children still didn’t realize it so much, they, of course, were drawn to be soloists, but more children were united, as usual, in any childhood - these were games. In our country, for example, all the games took place not on the football ground, but on the stage of the conservatory hall: spinning the pegs, swinging on the machines ...
A. Mitrofanova
It was you, excuse me, in this sacred place, in the hall of the Moscow Conservatory, who created such ...
A. Sergeev
I reveal secrets to you.
A. Mitrofanova
You reveal secrets, in this case, I want to find out some more details.
V. Emelyanov
That is, imagine, there is some kind of luxurious piano that costs crazy money, in general, it is from the last century, they are adjustable with its keys ..
A. Mitrofanova
Bandits are simple.
A. Boglevsky
That is why Oleg Sergeevich dealt with us quite harshly and beat us.
V. Emelyanov
What hit right?
A. Boglevsky
Of course of course.
A. Mitrofanova
Does that mean you were flogged?
A. Sergeev
No, it was on the head, cuffs.
V. Emelyanov
Children should not be hit on the head.
A. Boglevsky
Well, when my father, my dad, studied there at a leading institution, in general, I followed in his footsteps, in his time it was worse, by the ear and about the piano - this was absolutely the norm when Oleg Sergeevich was younger. When he was already a little older, of course, he behaved softer, but this is completely ...
V. Emelyanov
Is this justified despotism?
A. Boglevsky
You see, in fact, it was extremely difficult with us to calm down a crowd of a hundred boys who cannot be calmed down. This was an amazing person.
A. Mitrofanova
I have no idea how it is at all.
A. Boglevsky
So the choir starts at 9.15. At 9 - 9.10 there is an incredible uproar, just noise, din, and, suddenly, in a single, one second, it all stopped, there was complete silence.
A. Mitrofanova
A. Boglevsky
It only means one thing...
A. Mitrofanova
He went..
A. Boglevsky
He just opened the door, just opened the door and stands. Everything, complete silence, everything is worth it. Whoever did what, he froze in any perfect position.
A. Mitrofanova
Silent scene. And in what you were caught, in that they began to judge. But what is the result? Your Quatro team is all excellent students, it is emphasized on your website that everyone graduated with honors from the Sveshnikov School
V. Emelyanov
Well, the site will always embellish everything.
A. Sergeev
I want to tell you that not only ... we are very lucky in our business, because we are such pioneers. When we started doing what we are doing now, they treated us, how to say, with skepticism or something, because our school where we studied is pure classics, opera vocals, piano, conducting, and we went down such a slippery path as our teachers told us. When we started appearing on TV shows, when we started saying that we were from the academy, on the contrary, they told us that we were a disgrace to the educational institution, that is, we, one might say, went against everyone. But, after some time, when we won the Five Stars competition in 2008, this opinion immediately changed, because the teachers said that there is no definite division in art, that if you are in the classics, you must follow the classics - the main thing is that it should be talented. Maybe I’m speaking immodestly now, but we were very pleased when, after winning this competition, in the choir, as it happened, on the first of September, everyone was already clapping, standing up and, on the contrary, greeted us for what happened.
A. Mitrofanova
It seems to me that this is now generally a trend - the popularization of the classics, probably the first who burst into our space like a whirlwind, was Vanessa May with her crazy violin, then Boris Berezovsky, Denis Matsuev, in fact, probably, and what you do too such a popularization of the classics, and you are not alone in this field. There are musical groups from other countries with which, as far as I understand, you are often compared. By the way, how do you perceive these comparisons?
A. Sergeev
If this is some kind of simple comparison, we always treat it in such a way that it is good, this is healthy competition, no one was against it. And if this is criticism, then we also perceive it well, but only constructive, when it is to the point. For our part, when we are boiling in our cauldron, we can not see something, when someone tells us, we are even glad that someone from the outside can tell the truth, help us, guide us, and not only, as they often say, to flatter, we are only glad. But still, I would not say that the comparison can come from everything, that is, there are 4 people in one team and 4 in another, these are, in general, completely different things. We have a certain genre in which we exist, in which we sing. It is difficult to define it specifically, but we define it as pop-classic. We bring a little simplicity to the classics in order to convey to the listener more easily.
A. Mitrofanova
Let's hear how you do it now. You came to us with your records.
A. Sergeev
A. Mitrofanova
And one of them is dedicated to classical music. You are performing the Adagio, tell us a little bit about this composition, and we will put it on the air.
A. Sergeev
Well, “Adagio Albinoni”, it seems to me, is such an eternal classic hit, performed by us for 4 voices, we made our own orchestration, our own arrangement. And, oddly enough, no matter what concerts we perform, no matter what direction the concert is, we are always asked to perform the Adagio at the end, because this is one of the hallmarks of our group.
A. Mitrofanova
Let's listen.
The song is performed by the Quatro group - Adagio Albinoni
V. Emelyanov
So, the Quatro group is visiting the Bright Evening program. In the studio Vladimir Emelyanov and Alla Mitrofanova.
A. Mitrofanova
Recall that we have two tenors in the studio today - Anton Sergeev and Anton Boglevsky, this is exactly half of the Quatro musical group, in the performance of which we now listened to the Adagio. You know, but your repertoire is very diverse, you have not only classics, you also have, for example, romances. It has always been such a mystery to me how, in the rhythm of our modern life, in general, to tune in to this rhythm of romance, what should it be, can you explain? When you perform a romance, how do you feel? What do you need to turn off in your head at this moment, what to tune in to?
V. Emelyanov
When romances are performed at the Ramen Theater, this is understandable, understandable, when romances are performed at a concert venue or stadium ... for me this is a big question. Because a novel is, in general, such a chamber thing, as it seems to me.
A. Sergeev
You are all correct. We, just in connection with this, decided to move away from some such usual view of romance, that it is a guitar, a piano. We decided to make our own vision of a romance with a large symphony orchestra. We have an album "Masterpieces of Russian Romance", and for each work we have written our own exclusive original orchestration, arrangement.
A. Mitrofanova
Do you write the arrangements yourself?
A. Sergeev
No, we have a very good pool of talented orchestrators, from the category who still wrote for Yuri Gulyaev, that is, in the Soviet Union, an orchestrator was a person that artists simply could not do without. Now, unfortunately, this is fading into the background ...
V. Emelyanov
Because now computers.
A. Sergeev
Quite right, the whole orchestra is removed, they write any “self-play” on the computer and off they go ...
V. Emelyanov
But the Adagio that you sang, is it on a computer or do you have your own musicians?
A. Sergeev
I can’t say… that if we had our own symphony orchestra, it would be great…
V. Emelyanov
No, well, you don’t go to sing a cappella with the four of you, do you? Does someone travel with you from the band?
A. Sergeev
Let me now answer the first question about romances.
A. Mitrofanova
Yes, let's talk about romances.
A. Sergeev
A. Mitrofanova
We'll listen now, but I want you to talk a little more about it. Still, as for the content of romances, not in form, but in essence - it's still a different rhythm of life, and in a metropolis it can be difficult to listen to a romance while standing in traffic jams - it can be difficult to listen to a romance, in the morning when people go to work - it can be difficult listen to romance.
V. Emelyanov
And in the evening there is no time for romance.
A. Sergeev
You're right, that's what concerts are for. In my opinion, people are missing this, people are already a little…
V. Emelyanov
These phrases touch me all the time: "People miss this." How do you know what people miss?
A. Sergeev
And I know this from my own experience. When you go on stage and see that the people are sitting with rapture, in complete silence, they break away from this terrible, uncontrollable rhythm of life, which is accelerating somewhere else more and more, and you generally forget not only about ... sorry, I Don't know…
V. Emelyanov
Wife's birthday.
A. Sergeev
Yes, but you just forget about everything when you have traffic jams here, things to do here, and when does your soul even have some place for this? It is clear that we have a church, thank God for this service. More often for an ordinary person, maybe not quite a church person, he doesn’t have anything like that at all, and therefore, when he comes to a concert, he rests.
V. Emelyanov
You mean, look, residents of megacities, but after all, go to your site to look, you travel a lot around the provinces, here in the city of Lebedyan there was a mysterious place for me. I don't even know where it is.
A. Sergeev
This is the Lipetsk region.
V. Emelyanov
Lipetsk region, well, somewhere in central Russia.
A. Mitrofanova
Volodya, after the broadcast, let's go to study the map, I'm ashamed, you need to know such things.
V. Emelyanov
Yes now! We're going to dinner after the broadcast, that's what I'll tell you. So, Lipetsk is not a metropolis, people live more calmly there, both in Voronezh and Tambov too. Do they, when they come to a concert and listen to romances, differ from a metropolitan resident? Do they have a different perception of romance? The rhythm of life is completely different.
A. Boglevsky
The audience, of course, is different everywhere, somewhere people are more tired, factory workers, for example, it is very difficult to warm them up, but by the end, of course, Thank God, we often succeed. But in fact, romance is such a thing, as you said, really, very intimate..
V. Emelyanov
Chamber - I said.
A. Boglevsky
- ... and it refers directly to each person, and how many of these people are sitting in the hall or at the stadium - it does not matter at all. What is important is the essence of these amazing texts, this real poetry that delights the soul, which allows it to think about the most important thing, and it does not matter at all how many people will listen to it at a given moment. It `s Magic.
V. Emelyanov
Well, you, standing on the stage, manage to get through to everyone?
A. Boglevsky
We try to do everything for this.
V. Emelyanov
I understand, do you have feelings?
A. Boglevsky
First of all, when you sing yourself, these words pass through you, infect you with a feeling, and if you have it, then, of course, it is betrayed no matter how many people.
A. Mitrofanova
How about a personal question? Anton, you talked about the temple, mentioned worship, but in your soul this path also somehow began through music, in connection with romances, some kind of spiritual chants, or how did it happen?
A. Sergeev
You know, when I first came to our educational institution ...
A. Mitrofanova V. Emelyanov
A. Sergeev
At 8, yes. I joined the choir and Oleg Sergeevich began to sing. And he began to sing, you have no idea on what work. On "Cherubimskaya" Bortnyansky.
V. Emelyanov
For some reason, I thought that it would be Bortnyansky.
A. Sergeev
And, oddly enough, although the time was enough, godless ... I don’t know, since we have been performing spiritual music since childhood, this has stuck right in our hearts very deeply, but not only that. Apparently, in life, with Anton, too, he met people who guided, churched, the same thing happened to me. I had a piano teacher who told me, who brought me to the temple, where I confessed for the first time, took communion. Moreover, this was all in childhood, at a time when it was not yet so open. Everyone has their own way, I would not say that the music influenced very much, in part, of course.
A. Boglevsky
Music very often, mostly appeals to the senses. Unfortunately, as the Holy Scriptures say: living according to feelings is not always the right way, because a person’s feelings sometimes take him away from what is needed, but without music, without this kindling of inner warmth, it is probably impossible to live and be saved . Especially in our world.
V. Emelyanov
Well, I propose to return to sacred music and, in general, to this topic a little later, but now let's still get to the romance, and listen to one of the romances performed by the Moscow vocal group Quatro.
A. Mitrofanova
- “About the Country of Birch Calico” – a romance based on poems by Sergei Yesenin was performed by the Quatro musical group, which today, in its half composition in our studio, represents tenor Anton Baglevsky, tenor Anton Sergeyev. Vladimir Emelyanov is also here, I am Alla Mitrofanova, and we will return to the conversation with our guests about music and the spiritual path that is possible within this music, literally, in a minute.
V. Emelyanov
We continue "Bright Evening" on the radio "Vera", in the studio Vladimir Emelyanov, Alla Mitrofanova. Our guest today is part of the Moscow vocal group Quatro - these are Anton Sergeev and Anton Boglevsky. Today we are talking about music, and it is no coincidence that a romance sounded to the verses of Sergei Yesenin, a Russian poet beloved by many, because very soon we will celebrate the next anniversary of his birth. We are also talking about sacred music, but I would like to touch on another layer of your work, guys, - the Soviet song. Actually, we all come from the Soviet Union, including the years of birth of the 82nd, 83rd, 83rd, and Denis Ivanovich Vertunov's is the 77th year. I just mean that you can talk about the Soviet song for a very long time, absolutely. Not knowing what to do in anticipation of a meeting, let’s say, which was supposed to take place, relatively speaking, in an hour and a half with a person, for example, at half past five, and now it’s three, and it’s 10 minutes to go to him, I’m on TV, on Some of the channels saw an old film, the music for which was written by Isaac Dunayevsky. I sat and enjoyed simply, really, because, on the one hand, it is so simple, on the other hand, it is so light, easy and wonderfully done, so I say that the conversation about the Soviet song can be very long ...
A. Mitrofanova
She is very different.
V. Emelyanov
Undoubtedly.
A. Mitrofanova
V. Emelyanov
I'm talking about samples, of course, and among the Soviet song there was a lot of rubbish, what to hide, here. You also touched on the Soviet pension, you have two records with a Soviet song, I think?
A. Boglevsky
A. Mitrofanova V. Emelyanov
A. Boglevsky
We have many favorite authors from the Soviet era, but one of the most beloved is, of course, Arno Babadzhanyan, who, in my opinion, is the best melodist, especially his tandem with such poets as Voznesensky, Rozhdestvensky is simply fantastic. But, you know, I would like to say right away about the Soviet song. We once talked with Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, and he told us such words that sunk into our souls even before we made the second album with the orchestra, we realized that this is the absolute truth. He said that in the Soviet era, the song replaced people with prayer, because they took away this opportunity from people, took away temples from people, took away some spiritual component from people, and the only thing left for them was a song. Therefore, the songs turned out so beautiful, so bright and, of course, I also wanted to say that ...
V. Emelyanov
In fact, people still had theater, cinema, and books.
A. Boglevsky
Well, you see, it still doesn’t come out in any way, the books are in you, and the song is a common property and is not forbidden by anyone, therefore, I don’t know, everyone sang “May Moscow” with such rapture. I absolutely agree with Vladyka's opinion.
A. Mitrofanova
There is an expression: “The soul sings”, there is no expression: the soul watches a movie or the soul reads.
A. Boglevsky
A Mitrofanova
I think in this sense this remark is interesting, curious
A. Boglevsky
And the most important thing is that in the Soviet era there were no such authors who wrote, as they say, both music and lyrics, and who sings and produces himself. It has now become such an idea when the author does everything himself, in the Soviet era there were composers, separate poets, orchestrators, a masterpiece was created by the conciliar.
V. Emelyanov
There were also tube radios that caught many foreign countries, and the grandson of one of the famous composers who wrote the evening hymn to one city said that grandfather was very grateful to this receiver, because he received a lot of inspiration from this receiver, listening to Swiss radio stations and so on. , and so on. And sometimes you listen to the European stage of the 40s, 50s, and now thanks to the Internet it can be easily done, there are a lot of familiar Soviet motives performed by strange people from Belgium, Switzerland, France.
A. Boglevsky
Somehow you are set...
A. Mitrofanova
Shrugs skeptically.
V. Emelyanov
No, my friends, what are you, I am also a Soviet child, I also sang this “May Moscow”, and forgive me, I don’t want to brag, but I am a graduate of the boys’ chapel.
A. Sergeev
Well, thank God, we found a common language.
A. Boglevsky
There are not two of us today.
A. Mitrofanova
I feel like the fourth extra in this wonderful company, because I did not receive a musical education, and I did not sing "May Moscow". Never.
V. Emelyanov
No, well, everything is in order, firstly, I did not finish my studies, I was expelled from there for “exemplary” behavior, and, secondly, I am also a Soviet child, I also have all these Soviet songs, I also love all this. And, suppose, a feast on May 9, when we gathered several families with grandparents, they just sang these Soviet songs at the table, and, indeed, they were sung, Alla said correctly: “the soul sings.” And not because people drank and ate, but because it’s good, because it’s warm, because they gathered, because it’s a holiday. Unfortunately, grandparents have been gone for a long time, and by the way, not only I noticed this, but in the company my friend and I said that this is something cementing, exactly what glued together several families - this cement mortar is running out, and this does not become. And, like, on May 9, and, it seems, you can get together, but this is all not so.
A. Sergeev
Well, yes. I would like to add that our war was in the Soviet era, at the expense of military songs, I don’t know if we will have time to put on some military song from our album ...
A. Mitrofanova
Well, next time we can deliver.
A. Sergeev
- ... but, I would also like to say that the era of military songs, these are songs written, probably in the literal sense, with sorrow and blood. It all feels so much that we treat the military theme, the military song with such great trepidation, we also have an album dedicated to the Great Victory, it was also recorded with a large symphony orchestra. And, I think that we will decide on some kind of military album 2, because there are so many of these songs, these songs are so strong that I think we should not forget about it, we felt some duty to record it.
V. Emelyanov
Do you have concerts with veterans of the Great Patriotic War, why do you make them especially for them?
A. Sergeev
So, I just wanted to approach this, in addition to our vocal work, as a team, we have long begun to engage in various projects as producers. We have, as a project dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, it is called “Grandchildren to Veterans”, every year we hold it in one place or another, we already had it both in the theater of the Russian army and on Poklonnaya Gora. And last year, I would like to emphasize this separately, we carried out a fairly large project, and held it near the walls of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
V. Emelyanov
In the hall of Church Councils?
A. Sergeev
No. On the street, right on the street. We even did two projects because the dates were close. It was May 8th and 9th. On May 8, we made a project with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch - this is Krasnaya Gorka, Sunday after Easter (this is also a separate topic, I can also say a few words about it now), and on May 9 there was our solo concert with military songs with a large symphony orchestra at walls of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. They blocked Volkhonka Street, and under the fireworks it was all very beautiful. We are very glad, in fact, that everything happened this way. And I would like to separately thank Vladyka Anthony of Bogorodsky, who, as I say, helped with all his being in this matter, and, of course, His Holiness the Patriarch, because without his blessing this could not have been done, it would have been impossible. Since this territory belongs to the Orthodox Church, and everything is very strict there, in order to hold concerts there, in the open space near the temple, this is also such a sensitive topic.
V. Emelyanov
We need to work it all out.
A. Sergeev
Yes, but, thank God, all this has passed, and I hope that this will be such a tradition for us, and that this year we will also do it all. And the first concert dedicated to Krasnaya Gorka… here the idea was… to attract our young talented, popular performers in order to attract young people.
A. Mitrofanova
We will talk about this a little later, but for now I suggest listening to another musical composition, what is next in line?
A. Sergeev
Let's probably listen to something from a Soviet song.
V. Emelyanov
Yes, more Soviet, because it was about her, it would be logical.
A. Sergeev
By the way, I add two more words that in the Soviet era there were not only excellent composers, poets and orchestrators, but also performers. Here we relate ourselves more to the performers. Performing skills are as important as everything else, you need to be able to do this too. And the next song you will hear is from the repertoire of Rashid Behbudov, such a wonderful singer. It is called: "Beloved eyes."
The song performed by the group "Quattro" "Favorite eyes" sounds
V. Emelyanov
You are listening to the Bright Evening program, the Quatro group is our guest today, and we just listened to one of the wonderful Soviet songs, while I was listening to it, I remembered very well my little one, probably the year 77, 76- oh, there was such a magazine “Krugozor”, and there were such blue plates, and I remember this song by Rashid Behbudov ... Ah! and of course, a player called "Concert", which had a lid and a speaker, on which a huge number of children's records and a huge number of records "Krugozor" were listened to, since my dad was a music lover, and subscribed to this magazine, including . So thank you, you, I plunged right into childhood.
A. Mitrofanova
We started talking about Krasnaya Gorka. Anton, you started to tell what kind of project this is, interesting, in fact, when you gather in an open area near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and invite, as I understand it, famous pop singers to participate, and what are you singing there on Krasnaya Gorka near Cathedral of Christ the Savior with pop performers?
A. Sergeev
The idea, in general, of the project is the following, well, a global idea: to attract young people so that young people do not relate to the Easter holiday, and, in general, to the church, as to some kind of passed stage where grandmothers go, that is, to rejuvenate this holiday. How can youth be attracted? It is only by attracting their idols, who sing their usual songs from the stage, it is clear that these are good songs, if there was a certain selection, thus, they attract their entire audience. For example, Sergei Lazarev comes on stage and sings some good, beautiful, lyrical song. All his admirers come, who, perhaps, have nothing to do with the church. Naturally, we take good pop performers, but at the same time, believers who lead an absolutely normal secular lifestyle, they have their own work, but they are believers. There is no need to preach anything here, the fact that they just stand and sing at the temple on such a festive day and say at the end, I don’t know, “Christ is Risen”, this gives at least a chance that this young man will have a deposit in his head that this is not some past stage, it is now, it is modern.
A. Mitrofanova
Now such a young man is listening to us and thinking: "So that's what it was, but I thought what kind of eclecticism it was."
V. Emelyanov
I actually thought of something completely different. A fan or, even more so, a fan of Sergei Lazarev, suppose, or even there Dima Bilan, relatively speaking, they don’t care where to listen to him, they will come to Vasilyevsky Spusk, they will come to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, well, they will say: “Chrsitos is Risen” , they will unanimously answer: “Truly Risen”, they will sit on a trolley bus and leave for their home, and, in fact, since it is customary to say “Christ Vosrkese” on this day and answer “Truly Risen”, that's good, so we answered.
A. Mitrofanova
Let's give the floor to another Anton.
A. Boglevsky
This is the whole point, I recently had such a pleasure to listen to one of the sermons of the Patriarch, in general, all his sermons are absolutely amazing, coming from the heart, lately they amaze me with their sincerity to the core. He said how important it is when we now live in the age of the Internet, how many popular and famous people are now who have the power to preach, because any famous person is already, in fact, a preacher, because a huge number of people listen to him on the Internet, scenes, on television, anywhere, and how important, as he put it, I will say in direct words: “Do not corrupt your temple”, that is, what is inside you, your soul. And how much, how often now our famous people corrupt both their temple and the temple of all the people around, figuratively speaking. And the essence of the project is that these people, just artists, convey to people the most important thing, so that they appeal to those feelings among their admirers that are the most important and necessary in order to understand the meaning of life. Therefore, this project was aimed at.
A. Mitrofanova
And you can ask, when you sing, what tasks do you set for yourself, why do you do it?
V. Emelyanov
Super task.
A. Mitrofanova
There is this question: “Why”, we all ask ourselves sooner or later, no matter what we do. We speak at microphones, you sing on stage, someone draws, paints pictures, someone, I don’t know, draws projects, someone extracts coal in a mine ...
V. Emelyanov
I think you are taking this very seriously.
A. Mitrofanova
The question "why" periodically arises in each of us.
V. Emelyanov
I can tell you why I'm at the microphone: I like it. I have no other answer.
A. Mitrofanova
Me too.
V. Emelyanov
I just like it, I won't like it, I won't be at the microphone
A. Sergeev
At one time, producers offered us, for a long time, they said: “guys, now you are signing a contract with us, and in 3 months you will be famous people, but you need to sing these songs.” And they turned on the songs that we needed to sing, to put it mildly, it was such a very cheap pop, but “you will be popular with it”, this was suggested when we were nobody at all, that is, it was like ...
A. Mitrofanova
That is, you were offered a compromise with conscience.
A. Sergeev
Yes, go for it, become famous, popular, successful.
A. Mitrofanova
Wake up famous.
A. Sergeev
Yes, but we didn't do it, because now, first of all, I don't know what would happen now if we did it.
A. Mitrofanova
It is not yet a fact that you would have remained in the same composition.
A. Sergeev
We could not, how can I tell you, this is not what we would like to do.
V. Emelyanov
Anton, you know, it is not known what would have happened. Because one day there were four guys, very young and very ambitious, who were, in general, punks in life and complete jerks, including everything (we won’t specify what exactly) in this lifestyle. Once a dude came to them and said: “You know, I will make super popular people out of you,” and these guys later sang not the songs that they originally planned to sing, playing on the washboard in the skiff group, which was then called differently, and then these guys began to be called "the Beatles", and washed the whole world in general. You see, but according to history, they wanted to do completely different things, especially John Lennon, for whom all these sugary things ... and he did not immediately fall for what he offered him as arrangements later, I forgot the name of this producer ... George Martin.
A. Sergeev
You know, everyone has their own path, and we feel that our path, it seems to me, is the right one, because I directly feel that the Lord is leading us.
A. Boglevsky
Forgive me, please, they just often asked us in the fitting, they thanked us: “Guys, thank you very much, and who is your producer?”, And we were somehow hesitant, we didn’t know what to answer ...
A. Sergeev
Because we don't have a producer.
A. Boglevsky
And once they said: “Our producer is the Lord God,” and it is.
A. Mitrofanova
Strong statement.
A. Boglevsky
This is a strong statement, but there is no other way to say it.
A. Sergeev
It's just that so many wonderful moments happened in our creative career that there is no doubt about it, that the Lord loves us, leads us absolutely in his own way.
A. Mitrofanova
Here is the answer to the question “why”, indirect, but there are no direct answers.
A. Boglevsky
Well, it so happened that we answered.
A. Mitrofanova V. Emelyanov
And it turns out that spiritual music in your work is not accidental?
A. Sergeev
Our spiritual album, which is called "We sing to you", is even a separate topic for conversation, because this album was born, one might say, from that very childhood that I spoke about, when we just started singing spiritual music, it sunk into us heart, and we did it in a completely different way than what choirs do. Let me explain why in a nutshell. Firstly, we chose the works that we like the most, and most often these are works for a large mixed choir, where there are both women and men, with a division, with divisions, 12 voices each, we like this “Vespers” by Rachmaninoff , Chesnokova. We understand that we would like to do this, but without certain technical capabilities, there are four of us, four votes, this is impossible. Therefore, we did a whole lot of serious work, we did the layering of voices technically, in the studio, but in a certain way, so that it was all alive, not just computer. That is, at first we sang the four of us, then we each sang in one voice. All upper voices: soprano, alto, I personally, Anton has a good falsetto, we sang it upstairs for all female voices, and we sang it in a certain way, we sang it not with a female timbre, but sang with a boy’s timbre, as we did in childhood, disc there, viola. And it turned out such a canvas, in my opinion, some kind of, we wanted to achieve this, asexual.
A. Boglevsky
angelic
A. Sergeev
Yes, something similar. Well, how else can you sing to God, so that it would be so ... in general, we put our whole soul into it, so that it would be a real, live performance, so that we would still sing it in the Church of the Sretensky Monastery, since I sang a lot in the choir Sretensky Monastery, with Anton we also went on big trips, touring with this choir, for us it is very symbolic. And the acoustics of the temple were also preserved there.
A. Boglevsky
A. Sergeev
The echo we took was cut and pasted. That is, this is a very large labor-intensive work, for the most part we did it for ourselves, because we do not sell it. The first edition that we had, we just gave it, today we will give it to you.
A. Mitrofanova
Thank you very much, we will now listen to one of the compositions with you. “Cherubim” by Chesnokov, as I understand it, we will listen, right?
A. Sergeev
A. Mitrofanova
I would like you, before we move on to the audition, to remind you when you have concerts, so that our listeners, maybe this will be relevant to someone, and you will be grateful for this reminder. Where, when, how do you sound?
A. Sergeev
Well, our next big solo concert, which will be dedicated to Andrea Bocelli, we will perform a lot of his works from his repertoire, also with a large symphony orchestra. It will be at the Moscow International House of Music on February 3, we invite you all, we will be waiting. Actually, it was a pleasure to talk with you. And I would also like to add, if possible, I hope you will listen and enjoy our spiritual album, so that it doesn’t lie on the table, it’s nice to turn it on and listen to it, this is one of those works that it’s nice to turn on yourself , what remains after you is really worthy. So, we invite everyone, you can come to the temple where I am singing now - this is the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist on Presnya, and there you can buy this album, and I think that in the near future we will come up with some kind of action, so that this music reaches its audience.
V. Emelyanov
Well, do not forget, dear listeners, that there is such a wonderful thing as the Internet, and there you can type very simply kvatromusic.ru and there is also an audio player, and all the records are also laid out. Although, I think that, of course, you need to listen to music live, to be sure, but, you know, there are times when it is impossible to listen to some group live. This is, in general, a separate conversation. Thank you very much for taking the time to come to us, we are already waiting for you, probably with the whole team.
A. Boglevsky
A. Mitrofanova
Well, today, I remind you, we had two guest tenors Anton Sergeev and Anton Boglevsky, half of the Quatro team, in the performance of which we will now listen to Chesnokov's Cherubic Song.
V. Emelyanov
It was the Bright Evening program, it was conducted for you by Vladimir Emelyanov and Alla Mitrofanova. Goodbye.
A. Sergeev
Goodbye.
A. Boglevsky
