Isabella Yurieva Danflovna

Isabella Danilovna Yuryeva (07.09.1899 years [Rostov-na-Donu])

Madame Anshlag - the so-called singer, beloved by millions. Yurieva worshiped, adored her, showered with flowers, then forgotten, then remembered again.

ISABELLA Danflovna St. George was born on September 7 (old style 25 August) 1899.

'I was born in Rostov-on-Don - remembered Isabella Danilovna. - It was four of us sisters, we all passionately loved since childhood, music, songs. No I'm tired of singing all day: '

Whole history of the life of Isabella Yurieva closely intertwined with the history of Russian and Gypsy romance XX century. She fell in love with this genre of another 11-year-old girl, when through a hole in the fence of the Rostov municipal park with adoration and awe looking at the famous In. Panin, A. Vyaltseva and dreamed that someday, too, will come on the scene.

'Once we come to the neighbor and violinist says: painfully good singing your youngest daughter. And he persuaded me to speak at an amateur concert. For example, in Rostov-on-Don, and took my first walking onto the stage '.

It happened in 1917 in Rostov Park of Lunacharskogo.

- Russian folk song 'along the Kaluga road' - loudly proclaimed master of ceremonies.

And she began to sing. First - timidly, as if listening to itself, then - freer, lighter, more. And suddenly - oh, horror! - Mosquito. Isabella gasped. With some difficulty overcoming cramps, she finished the song. Unexpected applause just stunned. The audience is not paying any attention to 'crash', took it to 'cheer'.

Inspired by success, she went to Leningrad to his sister, who studied at the conservatory.

In Leningrad then lived in a. V. Taskin, concertmaster Anastasia Vyaltseva very kindly agreed to listen to the young talent.

- Yes, you are ready singer! - Alexander cried when he heard the voice Yurieva. - I have nothing to teach you. You have a natural setting rates, has its own charm, what else? Learn all three songs, what you like, and go on stage.

- At the scene? - Amazed sister. - Do you think that she will be able to earn their bread?

. - Will - said Taskin - and even the bread and butter.

. 'I soon moved to Moscow, where interested in my voice and offered to sing in the Garden Theater' Hermitage '.

. Intimacy, sincerity and extraordinary charm of a young singer quickly subdued the Moscow public.

. Listen Yuriev specially visited by representatives of the Leningrad concert association of H
. Rafael. And then he offers her a contract. And the puzzled questions of colleagues: 'Why, they say, you are offered to anyone not known a girl of 15 rubles for the execution of two or three songs, when we have well-known singers are the same for the whole opera' - replied: "When I heard her, I just died '. This is intriguing, and the girl nominated plays in the theater Yurovsky - a prestigious institution on Nevsky Prospect.

'I went on stage in a black velvet dress with a long string of pearls. In the hall - only the director of theater and pop administrators. Sang strictly, very delicately. One song she performed, second, third: I hear - slammed. And let's vying invite: 'I take it', 'No, I take it': Suddenly raised an interesting young man and, as they say, puts the point: 'Excuse me, I'll take her to him'. It was Arkadevich Joseph Epstein - CEO theatrical trust, my future husband '.

. In love and harmony they lived for 46 years, and these were, according to Yurieva, the happiest years of her life.

. For the sake of his beloved Joseph Arkadevich sacrificed career, . became the administrator of the singer, . besides, it was he who wrote the texts of famous Yuryevsky hits, . such as 'Kindly look', . 'Spring song', . 'If you can - forgive me' (his poems he signed an alias - Arkad'ev).,

. 'When her husband I did not even know what to go for bread, - recalled the singer - every morning, Joseph Arkadevich gave me flowers and a chocolate bar:'

. Of course, she had plenty of admirers
. Before Arkadieva her hands and hearts to seek U.S. millionaire Armand Hammer. Even at Arkadieva her attention and location were looking for Samuel Marshak and Michael Zoshchenko:

But the most loyal fans of the singer were ordinary viewers. 'In the twenties, I stood once on the open stage of the garden' Hermitage '. Finished my concert late. We go to my husband on a dark, poorly lit streets and hear behind us footsteps. I was scared, my husband said to me: 'Zainka, do not worry, I'm with you'. Came up with our gang of street children, fits the leader and said: 'Uncle, you have no fear, we will not touch your auntie. Painfully well she sings, so for the soul takes. We are you even up to the house hold '. That's what my fans'.


The public enthusiastically accepts concert performances actress. Critics point out her exacting taste, originality of interpretation, speak approvingly of 'extraordinary beauty of a strong soulful voice, easy and confidential, with lukavinkoy manner of singing'. In the mid 20-ies St. George is one of the first places to pop Olympus. On the posters the Hall of Columns in large letters write her name, and below and slightly smaller - other celebrities: Basil Kachalov, Vera Dulov, Catherine Peltzer:

1926 Isabella St. George and her husband spent in France. In Paris, she gave concerts, had a huge success, literally captivated Parisian audiences. She was offered a fabulous contracts: statements in the famous 'Olympia', shooting in the title role in Franco-Spanish film, in the end offered generally remain in the prosperous France, but she refused.

. Son Volodya was born in a Paris taxi on the way to the hospital
. Born with a congenital heart defect and lived more than a year, died in Leningrad (husband's family lived there). 'Husband for anything in the world did not take me to bury a child. I stayed in Moscow with their grief. And two days later was forced to perform on stage most expensive Music Hall on Mayakovsky Square. Director of Music Hall E. Dakman, which I said that I can not speak because my child died, calmly replied: 'The public is not interested in your personal life. She came to have fun '. And I sang, holding the chair. And in the box above the stage crying operetta prima Claudia Novikova, my friend. She knew everything: '

One night the phone rang: 'Comrade St. George! Now comes the car behind you, go to the Kremlin for a concert '. Isabella puzzled asked to call someone from performing artists. Soon she heard the voice of Kozlovsky: 'Punchik, come here and you are waiting for the concert'. Isabella agreed on condition that the husband would go: 'We are with him never to be parted! "

In the banquet room, where called to the scene, Isabella sat next to Kozlovsky. Suddenly came Stalin. Greeted by all, look at the delayed Yurieva and just as suddenly left:

Thinking about the leader of the world proletariat, looking at the singer, no one will ever know. But we know something else: the end of the 20-ies ideological atmosphere surrounding 'tsyganschiny', as contemptuously dubbed the then Russian romance and tabornuyu song, began rapidly to thicken. Otherwise, how tasteless and bourgeois throwback to now not known. The fire of criticism was directed primarily against the most talented artists of the ancient romances, in particular, Isabella Yurieva, whose talent is the most criticism recently admired.

. Creative people to be instructed in the mass proletarian culture, to sing the fight, work and the construction of 'new society'
. 'Net art for art's sake', which ranked as a love song, terminated, because it 'sidetrack from the construction of world socialism.

. Concert programs are now formulated in such a way that initially came out with a wicked parody of Russian romance Henkin, and after it was supposed to sing the St. George's.

. Reviewers branded the creativity of the singer, claiming that her restaurant style is alien to the Soviet people, nowhere calls and t
. d. Yurieva have to specify how to sing. 'What do you have for the song' Do not meet '? You hint at that? On the separation of the masses? Sing 'must meet'. Here is a curious document 27-year:

. Authorized by the Committee repertoire from Isabella Yurieva

. Statement

. Please allow me in the performance of the new program of music-hall following the old songs: 'They do not tell', 'Lada', 'Among the worlds', 'He's gone'.

. Isabella Yurieva

. Resolution: Exclusive on philistine vulgarity repertoire
. Allow for a period of one year, one singer, unless prepared product, in tune with time.

Politredaktor P. Pikkel

In the end, St. George could not stand pressure and ceased to act. The silence lasted for seven years.

. 'Breath of fresh air' did not want to make

. In 1937, St. George's put on records the first song - 'Do you remember our meeting,' Elijah Jacques and Andrei Volkov, who also Shulzhenko.

. During the war she went with a lot of concerts
. Sang, and on the Karelian front in front of the soldiers in the 30-degree frost, when even the shoes on the stage in the room were covered with frost, and the newly liberated Stalingrad, and in hospitals. At the insistence of officials from the art she had to learn a few are not typical of her art works of Soviet composers. But the fighters did not want patriotique. Worth the singer to appear on an impromptu pop site somewhere on the front, as they began to demand 'Sasha', 'White Night', 'If you can, forgive me' - the best songs of her 30-ies.

. After the war, Isabella St George traveled on tours throughout the Soviet Union
. Sang the old ballads, lyrical songs. Thunder, as always, struck suddenly. In the summer of 1946 were taken immediately three decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b): 'On the magazines' Star 'and' Leningrad ',' On the repertoire of dramatic theater ',' On the movie 'Big Life'. Last orders contained criticism of the songs H. Theological and A. Fatyanova recognized as flawed and ideologically unfit. Theology has been called vulgar, and the song "Three years I dreamed of you '- decadent. This was the signal for the next campaign against 'light "style, with all that was taken away in the obscure world of dreams and personal experiences.

Isabella Danflovna recorded a cycle of songs on the radio Zharkovsky, Tabachnikova, Martynova, Milutin. They were lyrical and humorous, funny and sad (no romance!) Lyrics. Decision Arts Council, which passed through the crucible of all the 'finished products', was unequivocal: "In the broadcast did not give'. And one of the major newspapers mentor guided him: 'If a singer instead of surrogates approached this folk song, she made a fresh impetus to the region of true musical art:'

. The singer refused to sing songs recommended ideologues.

. ***

. In September 1999, in connection with the 100-year anniversary Isabella St. George was awarded the Order of Merit to the Fatherland 'IV degree
. A few years before this she was awarded the title People's Artist of Russia. It was her first and only in its long life of the state awards.

. January 20, 2000 Isabella Danilovna Yurieva died.

. Excerpt from an article by Alla Cybulski 'Isabella St. George's: the centenary of his birth'

. - It sits in me, you know, sit there! - Said she nearly choked voice, and broke off
. They said: remove the note from her tsyganschinoy smells, and it was simply a passionate, durnovkusiya I would not be allowed, said: 'cruel' romance with a sneer, and he was the eternal, because the world of the senses, a prisoner in it - is a world of beauty and drama:

. The flowering of her talent coincided with the scope of 'step yards' of the Soviet Union
. The pathos of public enthusiasm was expressed in the collective public attitude are. All that was associated with the concept of 'we', it seemed the only important. All that are his own, perceived as a petty limited. Demanded of her not sing about love, but about building sites. What could I do to the artist, which is not much time was on the scene in the era of mass marches and songs?

She had to endure attacks. Strange and unpleasant to read the article and. Dunaevskogo in the journal Soviet Music '? 9 for 1948, in which he pointed Isabella Yurieva as its lack of acrimony, over-dramatic tension. Ideology gradually subordinated consciousness, thinking. A talented composer, who became a musical ideologue of the Stalin era, alas, and he brushed aside any other manifestations of art than those who stood guard himself: These were the ruthless ideology and spirit of the Stalin era.

. Love and dignity as a woman became the main theme of her work
. In ancient and gypsy executed by it in the works A. Alyabiev, A. Varlamov, A. Gurilev, A. Verstovsky, in the romances of XX century, in the works of Soviet composers and lyric songs to listeners enter the image loving, suffering, and a beautiful woman. And this endless road it turns its contemporaries.

The impact of the singer was the artistic experience, one that pierced her performance. She boldly went on improvisation, varying tones. Her accompanists Simon Kagan and David Ashkenazy, with whom she worked throughout his life, and improvising freely, which gave special brilliance sound. Unusually sensitive it is always treated with the word, with a poetic speech in music. Changing intonation, her shift, wide guttural chant or intimate confession became 'the voice of a magic lyre':

In connection with the return of romance in the 70 years to the singer rushed a swarm of reporters. The sudden attention after years of oblivion (her last concert before leaving the scene took place in Leningrad Theater stage April 5, 1965) worried and confused. Inexperience she was coming from its archive priceless relics: a unique poster with a portrait of 20-ies, the old review:

I knew and loved her since childhood. Joseph Arkadevich was a cousin of my mother. Coming on tour in Leningrad, they had been regular guests in the house of my mother's elder sister, with whom were friends from childhood, being peers. She was charming, and I looked at her with admiration. 'You also want to become an actress? - She asked me one day. - Do not even think! This is a very heavy proportion: 'But, of course, that's what I wanted.

How quickly time passes human flourishing! I remember in one of his visits to Leningrad, I saw them reaching the Nevsky. It was such a beautiful and luxurious-looking couple that I did not dare to call them, to approach it. When the evening my mother told them that her daughter was too shy to approach them, Bellochka (as it was called home) was upset: 'We're you, darling, not seen, we would have been glad to you:'

. They were happy and hospitable to me when I was grown up and stayed with them in Moscow
. How did you sleep comfortably on the narrow Nicholas antique sofa in the front room, whose walls were hung with old paintings and protected from light heavy tapestry curtains:

Not without amusing curiosities. Bellochka fond of good things, good clothes, which were not in the time period 'Moskvoshvei'. Discovering I sometimes good gloves, . stockings or handbag, . it - a short-sighted since childhood - they tried to touch and asked: 'Where did you get such soft gloves? " To which I replied: 'How come from? You forget, . that you gave them to me? " She laughed in response.,

. Before each concert she desperately worried
. But on that memorable day in the post-war Stalingrad excitement has reached the extreme limits. The morning loaded the rain. His shroud hid the outlines of the rising from the ruins of the city. By evening the streets could no longer walk and swim. 'Who in this weather will go to a concert? " - Sad singer. At the appointed time came the bus. She and the musicians with his feet perched on the seat: the water flooded the floor. And suddenly she saw that on the flooded street, holding shoes in hand, barefoot, lifting skirt, podvernuv pants are an endless crowd of those who did not stop the rain - her audience, her fans. And it bloomed with happiness. This was the time of her youth, her success, its acceptance by the people.

. Once she told with great humor, as one of the front-line statements in the interval between the execution of the spectators had heard the series: 'Turn, turn! " There was a perplexed pause
. Someone said: 'What, or whom to turn? Yuriev? " It was found: a young lieutenant was convinced that listening to her plate, and beautiful blonde shows only singing. On the back is his favorite plate was known to everyone and all the pleasing song 'Sasha', which he wanted to hear:

With that, of course, it's always been a spoiled woman, she has retained an extraordinary emotional responsiveness to others. When that always seemed fragile, manifested in the later years of persistence and courage. After the operation, Svyatoslav Fyodorov had never complained of pain, and when she was allowed to remove the bandage, said: 'Oh, I did not know that the world has so many colors! " And a year later the second eye operated strongly.

. She always knew how to say 'I do not know' or 'I do not understand' what was clear: it is that she does not approve, but do not want to respond badly
. At the same time expressed his admiration for the rapidly. Somehow, listening to Elena Obraztsova, said: 'These people do not have to grow old:' Perhaps, then broke and regret about yourself.