The death of the composer of “The Bremen Town Musicians” Gennady Gladkov became an irreparable loss

Composer Gennady Igorevich Gladkov has died. He was 88 years old – of course, a lot. It would seem that everything is so natural. Only there is a lump in my throat, tears cannot be held back, the feeling of loss is immeasurable. Because behind this name is music, without which it is impossible to live.

Many generations have grown up, are growing up and will continue to grow up listening to the music of Gennady Gladkov. It’s still with us “And the butterfly’s wings are bang-bang-bang-bang”, “The day comes, the hour comes”, “I’m lying in the sun”, “For us, tempting vaults of palaces will never replace freedom”, “My sail turns white, so lonely…”

Theaters continue to stage rock and roll “Musicians of Bremen”, which with incredible courage, contrary to the standards of official Soviet art, were invented by Gennady Gladkov, Yuri Entin and Vasily Livanov more than half a century ago. And let’s honestly admit to ourselves – they remain unattainable until today. No one will come to replace Gennady Igorevich Gladkov. Not because talents have dried up – it’s just that the state of society, that culture, that atmosphere that gave birth to these brilliant songs has disappeared and sunk into oblivion. They were destined to become classics.

Gennady Gladkov was a super professional. He grew up in a musical family (his father played in Alexander Tsfasman’s orchestra), and studied at the most prestigious music school at the Moscow Conservatory. And then he suddenly made a sharp somersault and went into chemistry. He graduated from technical school and even worked for some time at a chemical research institute.

Once, when asked in an interview why he needed this, he answered with his characteristic self-irony – “perhaps he wanted to repeat the path of the composer Borodin.” In any case, Gladkov soon returned to his real calling – he graduated from a music school, a conservatory in the class of Professor Vladimir Fere, and graduate school. The academic basis of his education was realized directly in ballets and opera music. Gladkov’s most famous works in these serious genres are the ballet “Viy” after N.V. Gogol and the opera “The Eldest Son” based on the play by A. Vampilov.

But Gladkov’s main territory, in which he created his immortal masterpieces, was cinema – fiction and animation, and drama theater, for which he composed his musical performances. Cartoons: “The Town Musicians of Bremen”, “The Blue Puppy”, “How the Lion Cub and the Turtle Sang a Song”, “38 Parrots”, “The Robbery by…”, “The Blue Bird”. “Kid and Carlson” and dozens of other titles.

Cinema: almost all the films of Mark Zakharov, with whom he was close friends and collaborated – “An Ordinary Miracle”, “Formula of Love”, “Kill the Dragon”, “12 Chairs”, “The House That Swift Built”, and also “Gentlemen of Fortune” , “The Man from Capuchin Boulevard”, the famous film musicals “cloak and sword” – “Dulcinea of ​​Toboso”, “Pious Martha”, “Dog in the Manger”, “Don Cesar de Bazan” and dozens of other titles…

And everywhere there are amazing hits, which the older generation, like a most valuable inheritance, passes on to their children who pick up this baton. Gladkov’s music will never go out of fashion. And only with this we console ourselves today, saying goodbye to the outstanding Russian classic, who wrote not for the members of the composers’ union, but for the people.

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“Tonight we were supposed to see each other at the Helikon Opera,” composer Roman Lvovich tells MK. – Today the Irkutsk Musical Theater is showing Gennady Igorevich’s opera “The Elder Son” at Helikon. This is his only opera, the rest are musicals. It ran for exactly a year, from 1983 to 1984, at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, and was never shown anywhere else. And for the first time since then, Irkutsk staged it.

At first I invited him to my premiere on October 9th. He really wanted to come. But for the last 9 years after a stroke, he has been in a wheelchair, someone must accompany him, he needs a ramp, a car, someone who will take him there and back. We discussed all these nuances to arrange his arrival, but it didn’t work out. Therefore, we agreed that he would come to “Elder Son.” He had already agreed on everything and was supposed to come. When this sad news was written to me this morning. Today the opera will take place without him, but I will definitely go. We will remember Gennady Igorevich.

– After the stroke in 2014, did Gladkov continue to work?

– Yes, he wrote something all the time. If his hands did not move well, then student assistants helped him write down notes. In February we saw each other at his birthday in the large hall of the House of Cinema. There was a concert by Fadeev’s orchestra – from his various songs and instrumental music. Despite the fact that he was in a wheelchair, he was in good, high spirits. We drank and talked. Everything was wonderful. We had a very emotional meeting.

– Which of Gennady Igorevich’s works is special for you?

– It’s difficult to single out something. He has several books with stories about his compositions. He recently spoke about the play “Dulcinea Toboso”. We all remember the film “Don Juan”, where Kamburova sings. But Don Quixote’s song with lyrics by Gleb Garbovsky was not included in the film.

And before that there was a performance in the Leningrad City Council, directed by Igor Vladimirov, where the theme of this melody was. The audience applauded so much that Igor Vladimirov, who was then not only a director, but also the artistic director of the Leningrad City Council, came out and said – let’s do it again. It was performed again. The audience burst into applause. Then they performed it again. As a result, they repeated it five times in a row, which has never happened.

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