Alexandrov ensemble

The A. V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble ( _ru. Дважды краснознаменный академический ансамбль песни и пляски Российской армии имени А. В. Александрова, "Dvazhdy krasnoznamenny akademichesky ensemble pesni i plyaski Rossiyskoy armii imeni A. V. Alexandrova"), shortly the Alexandrov ensemble ( _ru. Ансамбль Александрова, "Ensemble Alexandrova") is a performing ensemble that serves as the official army choir of the Russian armed forces.

The ensemble consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble. The songs they perform range from Russian folk tunes to church hymns, operatic arias and popular music; examples include "The Volga Boatmen's Song","Katyusha", "Kalinka" ^{Audio|Red Army Choir - Kalinka.ogg|sample}, "Kernina" and "Ave Maria". After the Soviet period, the ensemble has continued performing, entertaining audiences both inside and outside Russia.

History

The ensemble was formed out of the Frunze red army central house in 1928. Under the name "Red army song ensemble of the M. V. Frunze red army central house" or the "Red army choir", twelve soldier-performers - a vocal octet, a bayan player, 2 dancers, and a reciter - officially performed for the first time on October 12, 1928 under the direction of their conductor, Alexandr Alexandrov, a young music professor at the Moscow Conservatory. The program, entitled "The 22nd Krasnodar Division in Song", consisted mainly of short musical scenes of military life, including "Songs of the First Cavalry Army", "The Special Far-Eastern Army", and "Song about Magnitostroi".

In 1929, the ensemble visited the far eastern lands of the Soviet Union, entertaining the troops working on the Far Eastern railway.

With the goal of developing amateur art within the ranks of the army and to encourage soldiers' interest in good music, the ensemble grew to 300 performers by 1933, comprising three different forces of a male choir, an orchestra, and an ensemble of dancers. The Red army choir became known as a propagator of Soviet songs, performing original compositions by composers such as Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy, Anatoli Novikov, Matvey Blanter and Boris Mokrousov.

In 1935, the choir was bestowed the Order of the Red Banner and was named to the "Red army red-bannered song and dance ensemble of the USSR".

Having traveled widely throughout the Soviet Union, from the Arctic north to the sands of Tajikistan, the choir performed at the International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life held in 1937 in Paris, France; it won the "", the highest honor bestowed by the jury.

During World War II, the ensemble gave over 1500 performances at both Soviet fronts, entertaining troops about to go into battle, at gun emplacements, airfields, and in hospitals.

After Alexandrov's death in 1946, Boris Alexandrov, his son, went on to succeed his father as musical director for the ensemble.

In 1949 the ensemble was named officially to the "A. V. Alexandrov Soviet army twice red-bannered and red-starred song and dance ensemble", so it was not the Red army choir any more. In 1978 the ensemble was renamed to the "A. V. Aleksandrov Soviet army twice red-bannered and red-starred academic song and dance ensemble".

Boris Alexandrov led the ensemle on worldwide tours, before finally retiring in 1987. He was succeeded by Igor Agafonnikov the same year, with Anatoly Maltsev as the ensemble chief. He retired his career as the principal conductor in 1994 and was succeeded by Victor Fedorov, the chorus master since 1986.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the ensemble was bestowed the Order of Red Star by the Russian president Boris Yeltsin in 1998 and at the same time was renamed to the "A. V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble".

Today, the ensemble is led by Vyacheslav Korobko, who has been leading it since 2003.

Over the years, the ensemble has collaborated with many popular artists and producers including David Foster, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Steve Barakatt.

Composition

Chorus

The choir, like other male choirs, consists of three vocal sections of tenor, baritone, and bass. In most of the pieces they perform, however, these sections are divided into even more sections, resulting in producing as many as eight different vocal lines.

Orchestra

The orchestra, in what became a typical composition for later generations of military ensembles in the Soviet Union, has a mixed composition of Russian traditional instruments and western instruments, including the balalaika, the domra, the bayan, the double bass, woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments.

Dancers

Among the dances staged by the ensemble are "Zaparozhtsi Dance", "Cossack's Cavalry Dance", "Festive March", "Dance of the Cossacks", "Soldier's Dance", and "Sailor's Dance". Some of these are performed by mixed dancers, while others, such as "Cossack's Cavalry Dance", are performed by male dancers only.

The Wall Concert

In 1990, the ensemble participated in Roger Waters' The Wall concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They performed an anti-war song, "Bring the Boys Back Home".

International acclaim

In 1993 the ensemble became an item of pop culture by performing together with the Finnish cult band Leningrad Cowboys both in Helsinki, Finland where they performed on the Senate Square in front of 70,000 ecstatic listeners, and in Berlin. In the German capital the concert of the Leningrad Cowboys with the ensemble took place on the central Lustgarten and gave the former Red Army's farewell to Berlin and the whole Germany an optimistic overtone.

The Finnish concert was made into a rockumentary "Total Balalaika Show" by film director Aki Kaurismäki.

That year they also made a CD and played a concert with french singer Jean-Jacques Goldman.

External links

* [http://www.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru Homepages of the Alexandrov ensemble] (Russian)