Raymond Pauls returned to Moscow in absentia

At the Musical Theatre, Mikhail Shvydkoy performed the hit “A Million Scarlet Roses”

The Moscow Musical Theater twice hosted a dedication concert to Raimonds Pauls, a Soviet and Latvian composer, People’s Artist of the USSR, who received this title in 1985. The artistic director of the theater Mikhail Shvydkoy, Yefim Shifrin, together with other participants in the final, performed the maestro’s hit “A Million Scarlet Roses” to the verses of Andrei Voznesensky.

On January 12, Raymond Pauls turned 87 years old. That is, no “round” dates, but pure nostalgia. The “non-Danish” concert was staged by the art director and director of the Musical Theater Marina Shvydkaya. “We need him first of all,” said the host of the concert, Mikhail Shvydkoy. The maestro was looking at us from the screen. Many expected to hear his appeal. Someone naively believed that he would see Pauls in the hall. Nothing of the sort happened. The concert was accompanied by archival photographs of the maestro with Andrei Mironov, Valery Leontiev, who performed his songs, Pauls’ recordings, fragments of films for which he wrote music. After the first evening, Shvydkoy called the hero of the occasion, which touched him. But, as the presenter said, it is not yet evening, everything is ahead, especially since Pauls is full of creative plans.

And they met in the early 1970s, when the young pianist played in the evenings in a restaurant where it was impossible to get into. Raimonds Pauls graduated from the Latvian Conservatory in piano, studied with Professor Braun, whose mother is also a pianist and student of Sergei Rachmaninov. But then he became interested in jazz, wrote more than five hundred songs, music for thirty films, three ballets, instrumental works. And his first composition was written for the puppet theater.

All-Union fame fell on Pauls in 1975, along with the song “Yellow Leaves”, which is now performed by Oksana Kostetskaya and Efim Shifrin. Like the heroes of the popular French film musical “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” by Jacques Demy, they came out accompanied by a dance group with yellow umbrellas. In the old days, in one of the Latvian restaurants, “Yellow Leaves” was performed 49 times at the request of visitors, so the guests of the hotel located on the floors above could not stand it and complained. The 50th performance did not happen.

Pauls became the last Minister of Culture of Soviet Latvia. In 1999, the party he represented nominated him for the presidency of his country, but he eventually withdrew his candidacy, opting for music. Shvydkoy remembered the maestro’s Russian grandmother, his acquaintance with his future wife Svetlana (Lana, as Pauls calls her) on tour in Odessa, where she worked as a guide.

The hall was filled mainly by the older generation, the true fans of Pauls with experience. Most of the young performers, due to their age, did not catch the peak of his fame, but they participate in the musical “All About Cinderella” at the Musical Theater. Shvydkoy joked that it is difficult to find a non-drinking composer. In this sense, Pauls is a godsend – he has not been drinking for 60 years. In 2017, the maestro’s creative evening was already held at the Musical Theater. The new version was opened by the hit “Maestro” to the words of Ilya Reznik, the first performer of which was Alla Pugacheva. The popular song to this day was performed by Galina Bezruk, as well as “Old Clock”. “Vernissage”, “It’s time for business”, “It’s not evening yet”, arias from the musicals “All About Cinderella” and “Sister Carrie” were performed. They were performed by the artists of the Musical Theatre. Anna Guchenkova sang a lullaby from the film “Long Road in the Dunes” with the children’s choir “Soul Theater Studio”.

The composition was performed by the Big Jazz Orchestra of Pyotr Vostokov. She was accompanied by footage from the once-popular Latvian television movie Theatre, directed by Janis Streič, based on the novel of the same name by Somerset Maugham, released in 1978. The role of actress Julia Lambert was played by Via Artmane.

The musical offering was completed by the hit “A Million Scarlet Roses” performed by all the participants, including Shvydkoy and Shifrin. The song has been translated into various languages. Mikhail Shvydkoy remembered how he was driving in a taxi in Japan. The driver listened to “A Million Scarlet Roses” and was sure it was a Japanese song.