The song "Under the wing of an airplane sings about something …" is a hit of several generations, sung by many singers and musical groups. But the first performer of this song was Lev Barashkov - a Russian theater, cinema and pop figure, a wonderful artist and a charming person.
Lev Barashkov's childhood
The childhood of Lev Pavlovich Barashkov was associated with the dream of the sky and a military career. He was born in Moscow on December 4, 1931 in the family of a military pilot Pavel Nikolaevich and an aircraft repair worker Anastasia Yakovlevna Barashkov. His father served in Lyubertsy in the suburbs, where little Leva spent his childhood. In those years, all the boys wanted to become pilots, military men, and Leo, looking at his father - and even more so. The desire to be the defender of his homeland was so great that soon after the start of the Great Patriotic War, he decided to become the "son of the regiment" and secretly ran away from home. Reaching the village of Volosovo near Podolsk, where our troops were stationed, Lev told the military an invented story that he was a homeless orphan and asked to be accepted into the detachment. They believed him (now when his acting talent manifested itself!) And even began to select a small form, but then a misfire occurred: quite by chance Pavel Nikolayevich's colleague, Barashkov's father, recognized the liar, and the fugitive was returned home. In Lyubertsy, Barashkov studied at school number 1, sang at concerts in the House of Officers.
After graduating from school, Lev entered the Kaluga Pedagogical Institute. Here, in addition to studying, he developed other hobbies. Firstly, football, in which he achieved quite serious success and even played for some time in the Kaluga football club Lokomotiv. Secondly, the theater: he became a member of the drama circle, led by Zinovy Yakovlevich Korogodsky, a young theater director who soon became the head of the Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theater, and later became People's Artist of the RSFSR and professor of the directing department at the universities of St. Petersburg and Novgorod. When Korogodsky was appointed head of the Kaliningrad theater, he invited Lev Barashkov to his troupe, and the young man performed on the stage for a whole year without having a professional education. It was then that he made a decision about an acting career and about moving to Moscow.
Theatrical and film career of Lev Barashkov
In 1956, Lev Barashkov came to the capital to enter GITIS. A handsome, talented and charming young man easily passed the exams and was admitted to the course of Andrei Aleksandrovich Goncharov, a famous Soviet director and teacher, who later received the title of People's Artist of the USSR. When Barashkov graduated from GITIS, he was invited to his team by Boris Ivanovich Ravenskikh - the chief director of the Moscow Drama Theater named after Pushkin. On the stage of this theater Lev Barashkov played in such performances as "Petrovka 38" based on the play by Yulian Semyonov, "Virgin Soil Upturned" based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov and others. Boris Ravenskikh also staged a musical performance-concert, where Barashkov performed two songs: "Do the Russians Want War" (music by Eduard Kolmanovsky, lyrics by Yevgeny Yevtushenko) and "And In Our Yard" (music by Arkady Ostrovsky, lyrics by Lev Oshanin). This is how the pop-singing career of Lev Barashkov began.
In 1959, the young actor was invited to act in films. The first film with the participation of Lev Barashkov was the motion picture "Annushka", where he played the role of Sasha Denisov, the son of Anna Denisova, performed by the brilliant Irina Skobtseva; also Barashkov's partners on the set were Boris Babochkin, Olga Aroseva and other famous actors. And in 1960, Barashkov played the main role in the musical comedy "Maiden Spring" (directed by Veniamin Dorman and Henrikh Oganesyan). A funny and unassuming plot: the Maiden Spring dance ensemble was invited to perform at the Sormovo shipbuilding plant, and the whole team is sailing on a motor ship to the city of Gorky; the way along the river is accompanied by rehearsals and performances in front of the passengers of the ship. The soloist of the ensemble Galina Soboleva, played by Mira Koltsova, is in love with the hero of Lev Barashkov - a young man Volodya Makeev. To be close to his beloved, he is ready for any adventures, and, having entered the ship, asked to work in the kitchen as an auxiliary worker.
This was followed by roles in the films "Born to Live" (1960), "Heaven Submits to Him" and "Silence" (1963), "Criminal Investigation Officer" (1971), "Northern Option" (1974). These were supporting roles, but the actor put his soul into each of them, played his characters with talent and soulfulness. In the movie "Heaven Submits to Him" Barashkov returned to his childhood dreams - he played the role of a test pilot; however, this character is not entirely positive: for violation of discipline, he was suspended from testing the aircraft. On the set, Barashkov met and became friends with test pilot Igor Kravtsov, who worked as a stuntman.
In addition to acting in films, Barashkov also recorded several songs for films: "Silence" (1963) - the song "At Nameless Height", and "Elusive Avengers" (1966) - the song "Satan".
Lev Barashkov's vocal works
At the end of the 1960s, a turning point occurred in Lev Barashkov's professional career: he left the theater, and later, in the 70s, from the cinema, and took up vocal creativity on the national stage, having worked for ten years (1966-1976) at the Mosconcert. For some time he was a vocalist in the vocal-instrumental ensemble "Blue Guitars" under the direction of Igor Yakovlevich Granov; this ensemble was created in 1969 at the Mosconcert and became famous for being the "forge of personnel" of the domestic show business - at different times such musicians as Roxana Babayan, Aida Vedishcheva, Igor Krutoy, Vyacheslav Malezhik, Alexander Malinin and many others. As part of the ensemble, Barashkov performed "I do not regret, neither call, nor cry", "Kalinka", "Spring mood" and other songs. In the same years, Barashkov worked with the ensemble under the direction of Elena Anatolyevna Savari. And soon the artist's solo career began, marked by collaboration with such famous authors as the composer Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova and the poets Nikolai Nikolaevich Dobronravov and Sergei Timofeevich Grebennikov.
In 1963, after a trip on the instructions of the Central Committee of the Komsomol to Siberia and getting to know the difficulties and romance of the life of builders, geologists, oil workers, pilots, Pakhmutov, Dobronravov and Grebennikov wrote the vocal cycle Taiga Stars. The cycle consists of 13 beautiful songs, two of which were performed by Lev Barashkov: the same one "The main thing, guys, is not to grow old at heart!" ("Under the wing of an airplane") and "How the blizzard surrendered." In the same year the song "The main thing, guys …" was broadcast on the All-Union radio and immediately gained immense popularity. It was Lev Barashkov who was its first performer, and many people of the older generation say that no one sang this song better than him later. Moreover, the song has become a "calling card" of the performer, he again put into it his childhood romantic dreams of the sky and the profession of a pilot.
Work with the Pakhmutov-Dobronravov-Grebennikov trio continued further: in the 60s and 70s, Barashkov recorded the songs “Fisherman's Star” (1965), “The Last Pass” (1965), “Coward Doesn't Play Hockey” (1968), “Do you know the shipbuilders? " (1971). And again a song about pilots: "Embracing the sky" (1966) - "There is one dream of a pilot - height"; the premiere of this song also belongs to Lev Barashkov, and is also a golden hit on the Soviet stage.
Lev Barashkov sang songs and other authors: "Birch sap" (music by Veniamin Basner, lyrics by Mikhail Matusovsky), Russian folk song "Along St. Petersburg", "Hot Ice" (Music by Vladimir Dmitriev, lyrics by Gennady Sukhanov), "Seryozha with Malaya Bronnaya "(Music by Andrey Eshpai, lyrics by Evgeny Vinokurov) and many others.
In 1972, Barashkov was in Munich for the Summer Olympics, and was asked to sing something before a match of the Soviet national water polo team. The artist sang the song "Lady Luck" by Bulat Okudzhava, and it brought our team a victory! Barashkov became a kind of "talisman" of athletes - he was invited to sing before many sports competitions.
Lev Barashkov's activities after the 1970s
Barashkov was a very popular singer in the 1960s and 70s: he toured the country, starred in TV prefabricated holiday concerts, Blue Lights; songs performed by him "played" on the radio. Several phonograph records were released at the Melodiya company: "Lev Barashkov" (1968, 1973 and 1976), "Maria Lukach and Lev Barashkov are singing" (1972), "The main thing, guys, is not to grow old at heart" (1975), etc. professional musical education, he sang deeply and soulfully, captivating with his soft baritone, as well as external beauty and charm of the hearts of spectators and listeners. However, the competition is sometimes very fierce, and Lev Barashkov was ousted from the big stage, his songs began to be sung by others - more famous and professional performers …
Then Barashkov switched to performing bard songs - Yuri Vizbor, Vladimir Vysotsky, Yuri Kukin, Yuliy Kim, Alexander Galich. These songs became an outlet for the artist; he devoted all subsequent years of his life to their performance and popularization. In 1985, Barashkov worked on the concert program "Let's fill our hearts with music" dedicated to the work of Yuri Vizbor, and in 1996 he released the disc "Calm, friend, calm …" with the performance of his own songs. Barashkov, until the early 2000s, toured the country with concert programs, in which he included the author's songs of the aforementioned bards, as well as various songs of past years. The last recordings of Barashkov's performance date back to 2001. After that, several more albums were released - collections of songs sung by the artist in different years: “Stars that never go out. Lev Barashkov. The Best Songs of Different Years”(2002),“Golden Collection of Retro”and“Golden Melody - The Road of Destiny”(2005).
Lev Barashkov was not a bright star of the domestic show business, but, nevertheless, people remembered the sincerity and sincerity of his work. The state appreciated the artist's activities: in 1970, Barashkov was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR; he was also an Honored Artist of the Karakalpak ASSR.
The artist's life ended on February 23, 2011 at the age of 80. Lev Barashkov was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
Personal life
The wife of Lev Pavlovich Barashkov was Lyudmila Mikhailovna Barashkova, nee Butenina. She was born on February 1, 1937, graduated from the department of folk dance at the Choreographic School at the Bolshoi Theater, and then from the acting department of the Theater School. Shchepkina. Lyudmila Butenina-Barashkova - actress, ballerina, Honored Artist of the RSFSR. She starred in several films, danced in the famous choreographic ensemble "Birch". The spouses never advertised their personal lives. They got married shortly after the filming of their future husband in the film "Heaven Submits to Him", and test pilot Igor Kravtsov was a witness at the wedding. It is known that the Barashkovs have a daughter, Anastasia.
