This is the man my Dad called Uncle Gosha
He was my Great Aunt Clara's lover in Shanghai. Dad recalled living with them in Shanghai for a while, watching Gosha warm his fingers up and practice piano, his Aunt singing Opera, the parties they held, and how glamorous his Aunt Clara was
http://www.russianshanghai.com...18#more-18About A. Vertinsky. Report to the Shanghai newspaper
Liceum Theatre (1930).Grand piano on stage and talented Liceum accompanies George Rott. And the piano - a tall, strong figure in a frock coat with a white plastron with a white flower in his buttonhole.
Vertinsky!
Vertinskii - is, in essence, a symbol. This name is so often see in newspapers, its melody, the words, the manner of transmission so common everywhere, you hear of all black vents radio that when you see him alive in front of you, you will not believe:
- Really - that is what is Vertinskii?
Vertinskii - a whole era. Vertinskii - a whole generation, that's why on the bill of his concert in the corner stood a modest three mysterious figures "XXX."
Vertinsky sang for the first time in the sweltering predgroze before the Great War, when the world did not know that slides into the abyss of history.
Vertinskii then in his sad way Piero came contrast, the verdict a warning to the greedy, fat, swallow salmon reaction prosperous society and passed in front of the entire Russian arm in arm with a girl from the Boulevard, "in the wet gorzhetochke." In fact, it was also "epatirovanie bourgeois" such as Futurism, but completely different than doing something Mayakovsky and others.
Art Vertinsky - is present, Russian art, unusually good, a little bit, I would say, "God's fool." From love Vertinsky at hand to the monastery, to the quiet light lamps, dome of the Church to that golden candles burning in the blue sky. No wonder it is "Mother Superior" permeated this authentic mysticism Teresa of Nettesgayma. Vertinskii unusually good for the soul: he then took the side of the "girls in gorzhetochke" as Dostoevsky once unfolded like a banner unspeakably miserable "dradedamovy Scarf" Sony Marmeladova. On the other hand, he loves life and flesh, and "Her taste and color, and the stifling, mortal scent of flesh ..."
Probably Vertinskii would like to sit at the banquet of life is shaken by it Sonia to this sonorous, bold, strong world was some tenderness, a little torn. It is necessary because even a little upset to be sensitive ... And then came the war ... And the "warrant officer Vladimir", which sat in the car -
I shine shoulder straps,
You trembling hand ...
These dusty cars
Waiting for the last call ...
- The lieutenant heard songs Vertinsky in wet trenches on the Russian Rabbah and near Baranovichi and near Riga, and when the vast expanses of the Polish green light lit the rocket and shone on patches of snow - in the dugouts gramophones Vertinsky sang words that life is something, in fact, beautiful women - are amazing, gentle, anything in the world and while the rough and senseless war - were love and happiness.
Vertinskii connected with the crowd, and the crowd always believed, even in the most brutal struggle for existence that life is good, because otherwise, and to fight for existence would be nothing. Passed revolution, Vertinsky stepped into exile, saying all about the same, about the wonderful shoulders Princess Irene, about the fact that even the poor a walk in the Bois de Boulogne with his wife - a wonderful thing, that in fact it is necessary to expect that everything will turn out in a good way.
Vertinsky, perhaps, the only one of the emigrants, whose gentle voice sounded in Soviet Russia. In Moscow, they say, one can live a month in a room for one plate Vertinsky Moscow ... "Literary Gazette" controversy with his "decadent mood" in Soviet books-novels flashed his name as a common noun.
A Vertinskii in Shanghai ... Fatal "XXX"! But you gave Vertinskii?
No, oh no! .. His songs grow, acquire other, nowhere unseen, unheard of in nature - some moral-philosophical and worldly-wise treatises. Here and gentle reproof women praise male friendship, and whatever ... And all this unprecedented form of verse, verse, honed, dramatized wonderful recitation, set in the melody, accompaniment feathered Gregory Rotta.
«XXX»! .. Should Vertinskii in place? No, he keeps pace with the mood of emigration, with all the Russian people ... He understands that "the storm has passed," and he, a troubadour, cheerful and sad, mocking and observant, rings on his lute new tunes. At the final concert the completely new theme - Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky.
About Alexander Vertinsky"So much for the" song of Pierrot "- I thought, when the stage Liceum rattled like falling rocks stanza of Mayakovsky. This "Crazy maestro" of the orchestra unleashed a tragic lament copper trombones, violins screech frightened, and so that a business man swallowed appetizing salmon - suddenly ran from the room in horror ... What 'girls in gorzhetochkah "it is obviously not wade succeeded! It should be a means stronger. And now Vertinsky not crying girl in gorzhetochke and deafening cries, tears threatening words he copper-neck band. Suddenly a powerful, almost deafening sounds and the voice itself Vertinsky ...
Vertinskii - that's what he thinks the mass, the crowd thinks. The crowd is eternal, and it is eternal and Vertinsky. The crowd is smart, and it's smart and Vertinsky. It should be a positive surprise in our city, amidst this universal "bezrybya", "besptichya" and "solitude" Vertinskii alone, in itself, bears and solves issues that impose the course of our history.
Just wonder that about Vertinsky not write a book; This book is a powerful figure. And people who casually sitting side by side with him in the "Renaissance", the actors, who can not distinguish from the theater booth, vulgar and malicious parody actress anxious waiting, when will finally decipher what they are not wanted - All they really think they're familiar terms with "Alexander Nikolayevich."
And then not. No! Here the "talent, talent from head to toe," a mighty talent, great talent of a great artist who speaks to the people over the heads of all endangered pretentious temporary authority.
Source: A. Vertinsky. Behind the scenes, songs, stories, notes,
interviews, letters, memoirs. - M., 1991, p. 199-201.
this is the first I have read so much about Gosha, whom Dad spoke of so fondly. I am unsure whether Gosha was married to my Great Aunt Klaudia in Shanghai, or if they just lived together in civil marriage. I am yet to discover the truth about their relationship...