Pyotr Konstantinowitsch Leschchenko

Pyotr Leschchenko

Pyotr Konstantinowitsch Leschtschenko ( Russian Пётр Константинович Лещенко ; born June 14, 1898 in the village of Issajewo , Kherson Governorate , Russian Empire ; † July 16, 1954 in a penal institution in Târgu Ocna , Romania ). His name is often spelled Pyotr Leschenko in German . He is called " King of Russian Tango " and was a well-known and popular chanson singer in the Soviet Union (especially in the Ukrainian SSR and Russian SFSR ) from the 1930s to the 1950s . With an inimitable voice and lots of charm, he sang well-known songs from Odessa, gypsy ballads , Russian tangos , Estrada titles and other Russian-language songs, which he often performed in a slightly folk style.

Youth in Bessarabia

The life of Pyotr Konstantinowitsch Leschtschenko can only be made out with difficulty from a thicket of propaganda and rumors. His birth in 1898 as the illegitimate child of his mother Marija in the Ukrainian village of Issajewe is certain. According to one of the rumors, his father was said to have been the local landowner. He moves to Kishinev in Bessarabia with his stepfather . There he learns the guitar without taking lessons and one becomes aware of his musical talent and perfect pitch in the community school . As a result of the First World War and the October Revolution , Romania occupied Bessarabia and Leschenko became a Romanian citizen. Since he did not learn a profession, he made his way as a musician from now on.

Success as a musician

At first, Leschchenko is not yet known as a singer. With his Latvian wife Zinaida as a dancer, he performs a mixture of ballet and folklore . The couple became known and tours took them to Egypt , Palestine , Persia , Turkey and Germany. Leschchenko's success as a singer is due to chance. When his wife was pregnant in the early summer of 1930, he had to perform alone in a musical club among Russian emigrants in Riga . He is asked to sing and he sings to the accompaniment of his seven-string guitar and with his concise voice gypsy songs that every Russian has known from childhood. A wave of success carried him from one colony of Russian emigrants to the next. Soon he was also successful across Europe outside of these circles. He travels to Yugoslavia , Vienna , Paris and London . In London, the BBC is broadcasting one of its concerts live. In 1935 he reached the height of his success and founded the Leschenko in Bucharest , which is called "Maxim of the East" . The restaurant only has space for 20 tables. All the waiters are in tails. Nobody is allowed to stand up during the performances. Leschchenko usually enters the stage in gypsy costume and sings (accompanied by the best musicians) without a microphone . At the beginning there are always the gypsy songs. After the break, he returns in tails with a white silk pocket square and then the tangos follow, most of which were composed just for him. His regular guests include Armenian merchants and wealthy mill owners from the Bucharest area - but above all: Russian emigrants, for whom no distance is too far to feel closer to their lost homeland.

No appearance and death

The decline begins with the Second World War . In August 1944 Romania declares war on Germany, with which it had previously been allied, and the Red Army invades Bucharest. General Vladimir Ivanovich Burenin , commander of the Red Army in Bucharest, is a sponsor of the "Leschchenko Legend" . But when the Stalinist "purges" began , Burenin had to leave. The Leschchenko restaurant is liquidated. He himself is considered a traitor because he became a Romanian citizen in 1918. He had also performed in the areas of the Soviet Union occupied by German or Romanian troops allied with them. This is followed by bans on performances and only rare concerts. He was arrested in a gypsy costume and died in 1954 (allegedly of food poisoning ) in a camp hospital in Târgu Ocna .

The legend of Leschchenko

The Leschenko Orchestra at the TFF.Rudolstadt 2006

In the Soviet Union his music was officially no longer desired. There were no records to be obtained legally from him. Shellac records smuggled in from abroad and “ribs” robbery of his followers on disused X-ray plates were available . It was not until the late 1980s that the state record company Melodija added his old recordings to their program. Leschchenko became socially acceptable again and with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 a kind of Leschchenko boom began. It was published a biography of him, and in Moscow was Club of Friends Leshchenko established in which young musicians try to build on the tradition of her role model. In Germany, Peter Wassiljewski and the Leschenko Orchestra from Leipzig are dedicated to the legacy of the king of Russian tango . In 2006 the Oldenburg Puppet Theater Laboratorium created the play Russian Tango - Who was Pyotr Leschenko? .

Publications in Germany

• 1996: 1935 / Tangos, Foxtrots & Romances (Oriente Musik)
• 1997: 1931 / Gipsy Songs & other Passions (Oriente Musik)
• 1998: 1934–1937 / Everything That Was (Oriente Music)
• 2005: 1931–1937 / Gloomy Sunday (Oriente Music)

literature

• Regina Leßner: Russian Tango - A passionate love in murderous times. Radio Feature - Length: 54:22. Contributors: Petra Hinze, Ingeborg Medschinsky,
• Daniel Minetti, Frank Panhans, Günter Schoß, Nadja Martina Schulz. Manuscript and direction: Regina Leßner. Prod .: DLR Berlin / NDR / SR, 2000.
• August Grigors, The Paths of Russian Tango , in: Tango Danza (2001) 4, pp. 18-20
• Michael Pilz, Russischer Tango , in: Das Magazin , 2/2000, pp. 34–38

Literature in Russian

• Dragilew, Dmitri: Labyrinths of Russian Tango , St. Petersburg 2008, ISBN 978-5-91419-021-4

See also

• Leonid Ossipowitsch Utjossow (famous chanson singer from Odessa)

Web links

Commons : Pyotr Leshchenko  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Pyotr Konstantinowitsch Leschtschenko in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography on oriente.de
• The Leschenko Orchestra
• Pyotr Leschchenko on russian-records.com
• Website that was set up by Leschchenko's second wife Vera Georgievna before her death (December 19, 2009).
• Russian website about the life of Leschchenko.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Дмитрий_Шварц Памяти Веры Георгиевны Лещенко Пятница, 19 Февраля 2010 г. 19:38 
2. ^ Website of Tangokultur info : Theater review of the play Russian Tango - Who was Pyotr Leschenko? (accessed on September 20, 2011)