Pyotr Leshchenko

Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko ( _ru. Пётр Константинович Лещенко; 14 June 1898 - 16 July 1954), a Russian singer, universally considered "the King of Russian Tango" and specifically known for his rendition of Serdtse—the most famous tango song not in the Spanish language—was born a citizen of the Russian Empire in Isaeva (now part of Ukraine) into a poor and illiterate peasant family. During the First World War, his mother and stepfather moved to Kishinev (now part of Moldavia) which was later annexed by Romania. As a result Leshchenko has been claimed as a national by Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. He sang almost exclusively in the Russian language.

Biography

In his early childhood he sang in a church choir and learned how to play the guitar and the balalaika.

After the war, Pyotr, who had never learned a real trade, worked at various restaurants, serving, dish-washing and performing small theatrical acts. He had a soft baritone voice.

After taking some ballet lessons in Paris, he started performing with his Latvian wife Zinaida, a dancer. Their act was a mixture of ballet, folklore dance and European tango, which was so popular it led to tours to Egypt, Persia, Turkey, Germany and Britain. It was at Riga, when he improvised Romani and tango singing to make up for the absence of his pregnant wife, that he discovered he could sing in front of an audience. In 1935 he was at the peak of his success. Though he still included old Russian romances, and even Soviet songs (like Serdtse, the Argentine Tango song that would outlive him and which was originally sung by Leonid Utyosov in a different version as "Kak mnogo devushek horoshih") in his repertoire, songs were now composed for him exclusively (with the tango songs turning Argentine in style and arrangement). One of his favourite non-Russian composers was Jerzy Petersburski, but he also sung work composed by Pavel German, Konstantin Podrevsky and Isaak Dunayevsky. Composers specifically composing certain songs for him were Oscar Strok, Mark Maryankovsky and Yefim Sklyarov. Many lyrics of Leshchenko songs were written by Boris Fomin.

Leshchenko performed for European nobles and "White" Russian émigrés at his own "Leschenko" cabaret in Bucharest (dubbed the "Eastern Maxim"). The first part of every performance would typically be dedicated to Romani music, but during the second part Leshchenko would dress up in a tuxedo, with a white silk handkerchief and sing and dance Argentine tango.

In the Soviet Union his work was banned both because he was believed to be a White emigré (which he was not legally) and because the style (tango and foxtrot) was deemed counter-revolutionary. Nevertheless, secretly he was very popular: people would even listen to Radio Tehran to hear his music, '78 plates were smuggled into the country from the Baltics, and specialists would bootleg his music onto "ribs" (used X-ray plates). When during the Second World War and the subsequent occupation of Odessa by the Romanian army, Leshchenko was finally able to perform in the country he still considered his own, people would queue for hours on end to buy a ticket to one of his Odessa concerts. It was at Odessa that Pyotr met his second wife, Vera Georgievna, for whom he would later, back in Romania, divorce Zinaida.

After Romania switched sides during World War II and the Soviet army came to Romania, Leshchenko was not arrested and became the protégé of General Bulganin. Some sources believe this was due to Marshall Zhukov being a secret admirer of his music - Pyotr probably thought so, and after the War, wrote many letters to friends in the Soviet Union asking them to contact high-level officials so that he and Vera may be allowed back to the country of their birth.

In 1951, a week after receiving an official letter granting them permission to settle in the Soviet Union, Vera and Pyotr were arrested by the Romanian police. Vera was extradited to the Soviet Union (where she was condemned to penal labour for amongst other things, "marrying a foreigner") and Pyotr was sent to a Romanian prison near Bucharest. Both outlived Stalin, but Pyotr died in a prison hospital on 1954-07-16, without Vera (who had already been released but did not know her husband was still alive) at his side. Some friends present when he died claimed his last words were "Friends, I am happy, for I will return to my fatherland! I am going away, but I leave you my "heart"." (In the Russian original, "serdtse" is not the final word, however).

In 1981, his 90th birthday was marked by several articles in Soviet newspapers and several radio shows were dedicated to him at the time.

Famous songs

While most tango dancers around the world only know Serdtse, on special theme evenings (and of course modern CDs) other songs sung by Pyotr Leshchenko may get a mention. They include: the Argentinian Tangos "Anikusha", "Barselona", "Chornye Glaza" (Strok), "Davay Prostimsya", "Golubye Glaza", "Moyo Poslednee Tango" (Strok), "Ne Uhodi", "Ostansya", "Priznaysya Mne", "Studentochka", "Skazhite Pochemu", "Skuchno", "Ty I Eta Gitara" (both sometimes called "Polish Tangos"), "Vernulas Snova Ty", "Vino Lyubvi" (Maryankovsky) and "Zabyt Tebya", the Gypsy Romances "Chto Mne Gorye" and "Za Gitarnyi Perebor" and finally the "waltzes" "Moy Drug" and "Pesnya o Kapitane" (this last one, like Serdtse, with text written by the Soviet poet Vasily Lebedev-Kumach)

References

*David Macfadyen. "Songs for Fat People: Jazz Music in the USSR". McGill-Queens Univ Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7735-2441-X ( [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN077352441X&id=VY9tMomBAygC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=leshchenko&sig=wJqvfSUnY61A5UMUjOEfZJuBS3U Google Books] )

External links

*the German label [http://www.oriente.de/e/catalog.htm Oriente] has published three Pjotr Leschenko CDs
*a contemporary orchestra in Leipzig, [http://www.leschenko-orchester.de/index.html Peter Wassiljewski & The Leshenko Orchestra] recreate the rhythms of Pjotr and his era
*en icon [http://www.kidojo.it/tango/art012_en.html Tango outside Argentina]
*de icon [http://www.bubblehouse.de/wellenreiter/archiv/wellenreiter_14_.php "Ruhm und bitterer Tod des Sängers Pjotr K. Leschenko"]