Composer Pakhmutova personal life. Alexandra Pakhmutova: biography, children, family

Alexandra Nikolaevna lived most of her life with one man - her husband Nikolai Dobronravov, and thanks fate for giving her a meeting with such a person. In this marriage children of Alexandra Pakhmutova, which she, like any other woman, of course, always dreamed of, did not come into being, and she filled this niche with creativity and love for her husband, with whom she lived for almost sixty years.

They met in the spring of 1956, and three months later they became husband and wife. Alexandra Pakhmutova’s husband at that time worked at the Moscow Youth Theater, performed on the radio, reading poetry in children’s programs “Attention, let’s start!” and "Pioneer Dawn". They met on the radio, and their love began with collaboration - Alexandra Nikolaevna wrote music for children's programs, and together with Dobronravov they composed the song “Motor Boat”.

After the wedding, they went to Nikolai’s relatives in Abkhazia for their honeymoon. The poet and composer Nikolai Dobronravov became for Alexandra Nikolaevna not only a husband, but also a colleague, with whom she wrote many songs that became real hits.

In the photo - Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov

They have always been a very harmonious couple and a fruitful creative union, which is why they lived such a long and happy life. Dobronravov and Pakhmutova try to give as few interviews as possible, and do not answer questions about their personal life at all, but the fact that they lived together for a record number of years indicates that they were happy.

The music of Alexandra Pakhmutova became a real symbol of the Soviet era, and her songs were heard on all radio stations and on TV screens. Despite the fact that fate never gave Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov their own children, they did a lot for the children of the entire Soviet Union, writing many children's songs on which more than one generation grew up.

Alexandra Nikolaevna worked in different genres, but it was the songs that brought her particular popularity, of which she wrote at least four hundred during her creative life. She collaborated not only with her husband, but also with other songwriters - Lev Oshanin, Mikhail Matusovsky, Evgeny Dolmatovsky, Robert Rozhdestvensky and others. Her songs have been and are being performed by Russian pop stars and musical groups.

The names of the composer Alexandra Pakhmutova and the poet Nikolai Dobronravov have been so firmly connected with each other for so long that it is difficult to imagine that it could once have been otherwise. The family duo of Pakhmutov and Dobronravov is over 50 years old. But - honestly! - you look at them, and it seems as if you just met: eyes in love.

She is graceful, lively, with her eyes flashing every now and then, talking about music, she constantly flies up to the piano, and it obediently answers her with either a fashionable hit or a fragment of a Shostakovich symphony, depending on what the conversation is about. And it becomes absolutely clear: she and the instrument are one whole; tear her away from the keys, and she will die, just as they die from lack of air.

He is gallant, infinitely intelligent, during the conversation in impeccable literary language without the slightest use of slang or simply inexpressive words to confirm his thoughts, he constantly quotes by heart the poets of the Golden, Silver and Soviet Ages. He is filled with the word like water, of which, as you know, 80 percent of man consists.

For all her charm, she is strict, internally absolutely logically structured, without the slightest negligence, like her own Concerto for Trumpet and Symphony Orchestra. It is somewhat softer and more romantic.

Both of them cannot hide how they love each other: respectfully, reverently, but at the same time sensually. You look and believe: yes, she really is his “melody”, and he is her “tenderness”. Yes, it cannot be any other way if she is Alexandra Pakhmutova, and he is Nikolai Dobronravov.

They met in the spring of 1956, and got married in August. We met at the All-Union Radio, in the 9th children's broadcasting studio. At that time, Nikolai Nikolaevich worked at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators and read his poems in the programs “Pioneer Dawn”, “Attention, to the Start!”, and Alexandra Nikolaevna wrote music for them. Their collaboration began with the children's song “Motor Boat.”

“On August 6, our wedding day, there was terrible heat,” recalls Pakhmutova. “But as soon as we arrived at the registry office in a taxi, it began to rain. They say it's fortunate. We were very happy. I remember while I was waiting in line, I read all the services that the registry office provides: birth, marriage, divorce, death... It became creepy. (Laughs.)

A nice woman painted us in a small room. I didn’t have a white dress, and my mother and sister made me a suit themselves - a beautiful, pink one. And in the evening we left for Abkhazia.

“We left because we had nowhere to live in Moscow back then,” explains Nikolai Dobronravov. — And we spent our honeymoon there with my aunt Dasha in the Armenian Gorge. It was a happy time! And the best thing is that Alechka and I spent our first night on the lunar paths of this warm, beautiful Black Sea.

“We don’t have any special recipe for family happiness,” says Pakhmutova. “We just try not to be principled and not to find fault with little things.”

And Nikolai Dobronravov, speaking about his feelings for Alechka, always remembers the words of Saint-Exupery: “Loving is not looking at each other, but looking in the same direction.”
- To summarize, continue the phrase in one word: our family... (Alexandra Nikolaevna laughs.)

Unconventional! But in a good sense of the word. I once joked, a long time ago, and said: “We have an unconventional family, because we live a normal family life.” And the other day I was driving in a taxi, and suddenly the driver handed me one “yellow” publication that he had lying among the newspapers. I see that there is a photo of me on the cover and it is signed by Alexandra Pakhmutova: “I am gay.” True, later in the article they quoted my phrase in full and even wrote a lot of good things, but why was it necessary to put such a headline on the cover?

Therefore, Nikolai Nikolaevich and I can only say one thing: our family is non-traditional - everything in our life is exactly as it should and should be, that’s why we have lived together for more than fifty years and have not yet divorced...

Alexandra Pakhmutova (born in 1929) often willingly talks about the most remarkable facts of her biography in her interviews. She was born in the late twenties in the suburbs of Stalingrad, in a small settlement, which is now part of the regional center. The father and mother of the future composer belonged to the intelligentsia. Dad worked as an engineer at a power plant. His range of interests was not limited to professional pursuits.

The head of the family, according to Alexandra Nikolaevna, played many musical instruments and was such a talented person that her daughter would be glad to adopt at least a small part of this talent. There were four children in the family. Parents tried to instill in their children a love of art. Therefore, the future artist began playing the piano at the age of three. This remarkable fact is mentioned in almost all published biographies of Alexandra Pakhmutova.

The beginning of a creative journey

Already at the age of 5, the girl wrote her first piano piece, which was called “The Roosters are Crowing.”

Two years later, her parents sent her to study at a local music school. For Alexandra Pakhmutova, the years of mastering the basics of piano art came during difficult war times. A few months after the outbreak of hostilities, the educational institution was closed. However, some children’s love for art was so great that they did not want to stop learning to play the instrument even during this difficult period for the country. Some teachers met them halfway and conducted classes either at their home or at one of their students’ homes.

The early pages of Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova’s biography are associated with memories of a difficult wartime childhood. The mother and children were evacuated to Karaganda. My father, like many men of working age, remained to work at the power station.

The family moved to a distant steppe city by train. The composer recalls that one day a German bomber appeared over the open plain where the railroad lay.

The people in the carriages had no choice but to look doomedly at the enemy’s air maneuvers and wait. Talking about this moment in her biography, Alexandra Pakhmutova says that she is firmly convinced that the Lord helped their family then. Some time after the appearance of German aircraft, the roar of Soviet fighters was heard. Alexandra Nikolaevna saw how a shot down bomber fell not far from the railway tracks.

Biography of Alexandra Pakhmutova. Children of war

After returning from evacuation, Alexandra Nikolaevna and her family found their hometown in ruins. There was a lot of disabled enemy military equipment around the settlement. Sometimes it was possible to find a German accordion in such landfills. The girl mastered this instrument, since it was almost impossible to get a piano at that time.

However, even at such a young age, Alexandra Pakhmutova had already begun to think about her future purpose. She wanted to devote her life to music. Therefore, the girl often jokingly told her parents that she needed to go to study in Moscow or Leningrad, and that if her parents did not send her there, she would fly away with her pilot acquaintances, with whom she had allegedly already agreed on this.

Capital of the Motherland

In the end, mom and dad succumbed to her persuasion and sent their daughter to Moscow. The most important educational institution in the country, where school-age children, along with general education subjects, also took a cycle of musical theoretical disciplines and playing an instrument, was the central children's music school of Moscow. But in order to enter there, it was necessary to pass entrance tests, which were not inferior in complexity to competitions for applicants to leading universities. Enrollment in this educational institution was a turning point in the biography of Alexandra Pakhmutova.

The commission, consisting of prominent artists, decided that the gifted girl definitely needed to study music professionally. She was enrolled. In addition to the main course, Pakhmutova also attended elective classes in composition, taught by the famous composer and teacher Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin. This artist, although he did not have such a loud name known to the general public as Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Khachaturian, it was to him that many Russian musical figures of the 20th century should be grateful for the amazing lessons in instrumentation and composition that he gave them as a teacher in the Moscow State Conservatory.

Investment in the future

A lesson in the class of Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin, where he gives a composition lesson to the young student Alexandra Pakhmutova, is captured in one of the newsreels of those years. That period of Alexandra Pakhmutova’s biography remained forever in the composer’s memory.

Despite the difficult military situation in the country, when all the best was given to the front, the state still found the opportunity to provide more or less decent food for students of the Central Children's Music School. They received the same ration cards as workers who worked in the defense industry.

Choosing between composition and performance

After graduating from music school, Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova had in her performing repertoire a sufficient number of concert piano works that would be enough for a full-fledged large performance.

However, instead of a performing career, she chose the creative path of a composer. That is why the girl entered the Moscow State Conservatory. Her teacher in the composition class was still Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin.

This artist, among other things, is famous for the fact that he completed many works that remained unfinished after the death of the great Russian composers. He passed on his excellent knowledge of the musical heritage of Russian classics to his students, including Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova. It is no coincidence that while studying in graduate school, she chose “Features of the score of the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka” as the topic of her dissertation.

Descendant of the great Russian composer

Russian musicians have a tradition of drawing up their family tree in art.

For example, Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova jokingly calls herself the granddaughter of Rimsky-Korsakov. Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin was a student of the teacher, who, in turn, attended the class of Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov. Therefore, Pakhmutova can rightfully call herself the heir to the traditions of the great composer.

After graduation, the young artist was accepted into the Union of Composers.

Personal life

The composer's biography also includes pages of a happy family life that lasts for many decades. Pakhmutova met her future husband, so to speak, without interrupting the creative process. In those days, numerous programs for children and youth were broadcast on the radio. While working on one of them, Alexandra Nikolaevna had the opportunity to write songs based on poems by the young poet Nikolai Dobronravov.

Fate decreed that after three months the creative duo turned into a married couple. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Abkhazia, swimming in the Black Sea and enjoying walks in the moonlight. The couple considers this vacation the best of their lives.

Komsomol construction projects and space

The creative biography and personal life of Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova contains many interesting and memorable moments.

In Soviet times, members of the unions of writers and composers, such as Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, toured the country a lot. Along with ordinary concerts, the artists had to hold many patronage events for astronauts, submariners, and hydroelectric power station builders. Therefore, the couple often communicated with various interesting people. One day they took part in one of the submarine dives. During this voyage, the couple spent exactly 24 hours under water.

Alexandra Nikolaevna remembers the sailors of this ship as people of high culture, very well-read and intelligent. One of the officers, who was then visiting the apartment of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, sat down at the piano and flawlessly played one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s works. When he finished performing, he said that if the composer ever decided to sell this musical instrument, he would be happy to buy it, since he really liked the piano.

At that time, many young specialists came to various Komsomol construction sites who worked in the taiga, virgin lands and other places with a rather harsh climate, not only for material gain. Many of them said that they do it at the call of their hearts and that they lack romance in ordinary city life. Spouses also often had to communicate with such enthusiasts.

Family Children

In the biography of Alexandra Pakhmutova, one cannot ignore the fact that the composer wrote music not only for an adult audience. Many of her works are dedicated to the younger generation.

Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov have no children. Photos of Alexandra Pakhmutova’s family can say a lot of interesting things about the composer’s biography. A large number of these photographs feature their young friends. These are, as a rule, participants in children's choirs. In the creative and personal biography of Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova there were many happy moments associated with children.

As already mentioned, the future spouses met while working on a radio program for young listeners. The concert composition of the Central Children's Choir also often included in its repertoire works written by the family duet. The leader of this team, Popov, was a close friend of the couple for many years. Therefore, children played a great role in the biography and personal life of Alexandra Pakhmutova.

Features of creative style

Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova created several hundred songs during her life, some of which were written for various films, such as “Girls”, “The Ulyanov Family” and others.

The best performers, such as Muslim Magomayev and Anna German, sang her songs. However, in addition to works of small form, the composer also created a large amount of music for symphony orchestra.

New works

And today, having gone through a long creative path, Alexandra Nikolaevna does not part with her favorite pastime, with the work of her whole life. Over the past few years, a number of new songs by Pakhmutova have been released, such as “Spring in Love” performed by Tamara Gverdtsiteli and Renat Ibragimov. The composer does not stop working on creating academic music. Thus, in February 2018, the premiere of the concertina “Winner” for trumpet and orchestra took place.

Height, weight, age. How old is Alexandra Pakhmutova

If we take into account such issues as height, weight, age. How old is Alexandra Pakhmutova, there is a separate story here that deserves respect. The fact is that the woman is already, neither more nor less, but 89 years old, which is a very advanced age. The composer's height is 149 centimeters, and his weight today is 45 kilograms. This little woman was able to do great things, if only because music always came first for her. But where did she start? What exactly was the impetus for her that made her think about such a life choice. Let's look at all this in more detail. After all, before becoming famous, she was forced to go through a difficult life path, which was not always straight.

Biography and personal life of Alexandra Pakhmutova

The biography and personal life of Alexandra Pakhmutova deserves special attention, if only because she began to show a love for music from a very young age. They say that she composed her first music when she was only three years old. Therefore, it is not surprising that at the age of seven she began studying at a music school, from which she had to leave due to the outbreak of the Second World War. It should also be noted that at the very height of the war, Pakhmutova was not afraid to leave for Moscow in order to begin studying at a music educational institution. And although everyone tried to dissuade her from this, she still could not give up her dream. Moreover, learning was very easy for her, the girl literally grasped everything on the fly, showing with every fiber of her soul that she could not imagine her life without music. Then her star journey began, which she walked with her head held high. She understood that either she would succeed or not, but it was definitely worth a try.

The woman worked in a variety of genres, everywhere she showed herself in the best possible way, because she strived to constantly improve.

Since the woman is now very old, she has begun to lead a quiet lifestyle, and plays music purely for the soul. From time to time she attends concerts where her music is played, and you can also hear new melodies from her. In terms of her personal life, Alexandra has her own story; it is more like a fairy tale about eternal love, because she lived almost her entire life with one and only man. Her husband, whose name is Nikolai Dobronravov, is also a composer and poet. It was with him that the woman managed to write many of her hits and popular melodies. And although the couple has no children, the couple loved each other all their lives, valued their marriage, supported and made compromises, understanding that their personal life is just as important as the career of a composer.

Family and children of Alexandra Pakhmutova

The family and children of Alexandra Pakhmutova are a very sore subject. Today the family consists of herself and her beloved husband Nikolai. They met through common activities, because both are representatives of creative professions. The fact is that Nikolai is also a composer and poet, it must be said that it was with him that Alexandra wrote many songs and melodies, which later became real hits. And although you involuntarily ask, “Why doesn’t a celebrity like Alexander Pakhmutov have children?”, it is probably impossible to answer this question. Only the spouses themselves can do this.

Maybe the problem with childlessness here is health, maybe it’s because they didn’t have time for them, or maybe because it didn’t work out. Alexandra herself always avoided this issue, not wanting to share her emotional experiences. So, true fans of Pakhmutova can decide for themselves why the famous composer does not have heirs, if, of course, this is important to them. After all, Alexandra had a lot of good things in her life, she received recognition, fame, and, most importantly, she always did what she loved. And this means a lot in the life of every person, if only because not everyone manages to achieve what they strived for and dreamed about. Alexandra succeeded, because her music forever settled in the hearts of fans who listened to her and understood how beautiful her creations are.

Alexandra Pakhmutova’s husband – Nikolai Dobronravov

Alexandra Pakhmutova’s husband Nikolai Dobronravov became her chosen one for life. Many are convinced that this couple has a lot to learn in terms of fidelity and the ability to maintain a home. Of course, one cannot say with certainty that everything was always good and smooth with them. Most likely, during their family life they also experienced various crises, maybe they were even close to breaking up, but they always found a way to get back together. Composer Nikolai Dobronravov has repeatedly said that he is grateful to fate for having met Alexandra.

Actually, they agreed on the basis that they had the same tastes, they loved music together, they were ready to spend hours composing something new, making the world a little better with the help of melodies. What is noteworthy is that it was in the company of her husband that Pakhmutova wrote many hits; perhaps they were inspired by each other’s presence, because it is not for nothing that they say that love is capable of much. Today, the couple is still together, for many they are role models in terms of family comfort and correct values.

Wikipedia Alexandra Pakhmutova

As mentioned above, Alexandra is now at a very advanced age. She lived a long life, which not everyone can live with dignity. It is not surprising that her life was filled with a variety of twists and surprises, which you can find out about if you go to the Internet. And although earlier, during her youth, there were no social networks and the Internet, today you can find a lot of interesting things about her, and this is not at all difficult to do. Just go to the Internet, where you will immediately see your personal page on Wikipedia (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakhmutova,_Alexandra_Nikolaevna), which tells about this wonderful composer.

The page tells about her childhood, how she came to fame, how she always loved music and what she did to pursue it. However, it should be noted that she does not have an Instagram page. There are various reasons for this. Firstly, a woman is at an age when the Internet is no longer very interesting; she has no desire to surf the Internet and post her photos. Secondly, when the composer was young there were no social networks, and perhaps the woman is not interested in them at all. So, if you want to know more about Alexandra Pakhmutova, then Alexandra Pakhmutova’s Wikipedia is always at your service.

Legend of Soviet popular music, composer Alexandra Pakhmutova born on November 9, 1929 in the village of Beketovka, which today is part of Volgograd. The girl’s musical abilities were so obvious that already at the age of 3 her parents began teaching her to play the piano.

Alexandra Pakhmutova, 1930. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

It was music that helped Pakhmutova find her “prince” and main partner in her work. With a young poet Nikolai Dobronravov they met in the children's broadcasting studio on All-Union Radio. Pakhmutova wrote music for the programs “Pioneer Dawn”, “Attention, at the start!”, and Dobronravov read poems of his own composition in these programs. Almost immediately they wrote their first duet, “Motor Boat,” and three months later they signed at the registry office.

They didn’t organize a magnificent celebration: there was simply no money for it. The bride wore a modest pink suit, sewn by her mother. When Pakhmutova and Dobronravov were getting married, a downpour suddenly poured down on a hot August day. The lovers considered this a good sign. We went on a honeymoon to visit relatives in Abkhazia and spent our wedding night on the lunar paths of the Black Sea. As Pakhmutova and Dobronravov say in their interviews, they consider this vacation, despite all its modesty, the happiest in their lives. Alexandra Nikolaevna’s aunt prepared delicious Caucasian dishes for them, the newlyweds swam in the sea all day long, discussed joint creative plans... Since then, dozens of joint works have been written, hits that have not become obsolete for many years (“Tenderness”, “Old Maple”, “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, “How young we were”), sports anthems (“The Team of Our Youth” and “A Coward Doesn’t Play Hockey”), lively songs (“The main thing, guys, is not to grow old in your heart!”).

From left to right: composer Oscar Feltsman, Mongolian singer Tsetsegee Dashtsevagiin, poet Nikolai Dobronravov, singer Galina Nenasheva, singer Joseph Kobzon, chairman of the jury, composer Alexandra Pakhmutova, Cuban singer Lourdes Gil and poet Robert Rozhdestvensky. III International Festival of Youth Political Songs in Sochi. 1969 Photo: RIA Novosti/B. Elin

Pakhmutova and Dobronravov are considered an inseparable creative duet and perhaps the most hospitable couple in Soviet art. Famous artists and musicians always came to their house to drink tea and play music.

As he says in his interviews Lev Leshchenko, There is always a surprisingly warm atmosphere in the house of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov; the composer and poet call each other nothing more than Kolechka and Alechka. Alexandra Nikolaevna admits that she and Nikolai Nikolaevich do not have any special recipes for family happiness. They simply try not to find fault with each other over trifles and not to be “principled.” And Dobronravov, talking about what their family is based on, likes to quote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “Loving is not looking at each other, but looking in the same direction.” This is actually true in their case. Pakhmutova and Dobronravov suffered many difficulties, but they never became separated and fought together for their place in art. They once admitted in an interview with AiF that they “have a lot of songs that were banned.” The song dedicated to the veterans of the First Belorussian Front could not reach the public. The censorship did not like the words: “Our favorite was the Marshal Rokossovsky, and personally the marshal Zhukov took us to Berlin." How so, how can we call and glorify these military leaders if we have one hero: Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev?! Pakhmutova called “upstairs”, cursed, screamed. They found fault not only with the words, but also with the music. The song “And Lenin is so young” featured drums and a frantic rhythm. Officials considered the song "crazy" and put it on the shelf for a year and a half. Pakhmutova refused to even change the note. And in all decisions she was always supported by her loved one, best friend and creative partner Nikolai Nikolaevich Dobronravov.

It is interesting that the work of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov not only became the basis of their own family happiness, but also governed the personal lives of other famous artists. Once upon a time romantic relationship Muslim Magomaeva And Tamara Sinyavskaya gave a crack. Tamara Ilyinichna was then married to another man and at some point decided not to get a divorce for the sake of Magomayev. Then Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, having learned that the stars had quarreled, wrote two songs. One - “Melody” - for Muslim Magometovich: “You are my melody, I am your devoted Orpheus.” The second - “Farewell, beloved” - for the diva of the Bolshoi Theater Sinyavskaya: “The whole world is filled with a swan song, goodbye, beloved, my unique one.” As Tamara Ilyinichna and Muslim Magometovich later said in their interviews, these stunning melodies and soul-touching poems made such a great impression on them that Sinyavskaya divorced and she and Magomayev got married in 1974. All their lives, the legendary couple considered these two songs, written for their failed separation, to be their musical talismans of love.

Looking at Pakhmutova and Dobronravov today, it’s hard to believe that they have been married for more than half a century. They look at each other with loving eyes, talk for hours, and are full of creative plans. The famous couple does not have their own children, but they consider their talented children from disadvantaged families, whom they help make their way in life.

Nikolai Dobronravov and Alexandra Pakhmutova. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova is a legend of Soviet and Russian composing art. She is considered one of the most sought-after composers of the Soviet Union, for which she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1984. Alexandra Pakhmutova’s musical biography includes over 400 original popular compositions, as well as a considerable number of works for symphony orchestra.

Alexandra Pakhmutova, whose biography dates back to 1929, was born in the small village of Beketovka, located near Stalingrad. Today, such a settlement no longer exists, and Alexandra Nikolaevna’s native street is part of the city of Volgograd and is called Omskaya. Pakhmutova’s parents, Nikolai Andrianovich and Maria Ampleevna, noticed early on that their daughter was distinguished by exceptional musical talent. With their approval, the girl began learning to play the piano at the age of three, and a few months later she was already making her first attempts to compose her own melodies.

At the age of five, little Pakhmutova wrote her first full-fledged piece for piano, entitled “The Roosters are Crowing,” and the girl went to music school only two years later. In her native village, Alexandra improved her playing of keyboard instruments until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Then, after the evacuation, she continued to develop as a pianist in Karaganda.

As soon as the theater of military operations crossed the borders of the Soviet Union, Alexandra independently went to Moscow and, at the age of 14, entered the Central Music School at the Moscow State Conservatory. There the girl studies in a specialized piano class, and also attends a circle of young composers, which was organized by Vissarion Shebalin and Nikolai Peiko.

This famous “School for Gifted Children,” as it was then called, gave a start in life to many musicians and composers who later became world famous. Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova also graduated from it, and then became a student at the composition department of the Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky. The future star received a diploma of higher education in 1953, but spent about three more years in graduate school, subsequently defending a dissertation on the topic “Score of the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by M. I. Glinka.”

Music

It is noteworthy that Alexandra Nikolaevna writes music in various genres, including serious works for symphony orchestras. For example, she composed “Russian Suite”, “Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra”, “Overture “Youth””, “Ode to Light a Fire” and other compositions. By the way, the first two works from the above are quite often performed by foreign symphony orchestras. And talented choreographers of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater and the Moscow Bolshoi Theater staged the ballet “Illumination” to the music of Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova.

She wrote as a composer and melodies for cinema. Soundtracks from the films “Three Poplars on Plyushchikha”, “Battle for Moscow” and many others became popular. In 1980, by special order of the International Olympic Committee, Pakhmutova composed music for the official Olympic film “O sport, you are the world!” But the pop genre occupied a special, perhaps even key, role in her work. Alexandra Nikolaevna’s popular songs have their own individuality, they inspire the listener, carry a positive component and remain in memory for a long time.

Through the decades, the lyrical compositions “Tenderness” (favorite song), “Old Maple”, “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, “How Young We Were”, and the perky songs “The main thing, guys, don’t grow old in your heart!” have passed through the decades and have not lost their relevance. and “Good Girls,” patriotic songs “Eaglets Learn to Fly” and “Gagarin’s Constellation.”

The song “Melody” immediately fell into the repertoire, who performed it especially soulfully, since at that time he was going through a period of temporary separation from his young wife. The wife was in Italy on an internship at the La Scala opera house.

Pakhmutova also took part in the creation of sports anthems “Our Youth Team” and “A Coward Doesn’t Play Hockey.” The last song became a hit during the victorious march of the USSR national hockey team in the 80s. Listeners and fans were sure that the words about the Fab Five referred to, and. But in fact, the musical composition was created in 1968, when the future sports stars were 8-10 years old.

Among Pakhmutova’s favorite hits is the farewell song of the Moscow Olympics-80 “Goodbye, Moscow!” Initially, the text had to contain the line “Goodbye, Moscow, hello, Los Angeles!” But relations between the USSR and the USA deteriorated sharply a few months before the sporting event, so the concept of the musical composition also changed.

Among Pakhmutova’s songs there were also those that were banned at one time. This happened with the musical composition “And the Battle Continues Again,” where, in the sound of a drum roll, representatives of the artistic council heard an insult to the memory of the leader. But later the song entered the repertoire.

The songs of Alexandra Pakhmutova were included in the repertoire of such stars as and, Muslim Magomaev and, and, and, as well as several dozen others. It is worth noting that Pakhmutova’s works included not only Soviet, but also Western artists in their repertoire. For example, the former vocalist of the group “Modern Talking” Thomas Anders, the British group “Living Sound” and the East German group “Kreis”.

Alexandra Nikolaevna collaborated with prominent poets, including , but the strongest and most fruitful creative union was Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov. Music fans heard and fell in love with a huge number of songs thanks to this duet. One of their joint songs, “Magnitogorsk,” was even approved as the official anthem of the city of Magnitogorsk in 2011. This decision was made by a meeting of city council deputies.

Alexandra Pakhmutova has earned many orders, titles and awards for her work. The composer has three orders “For Services to the Fatherland”, state awards of the USSR and Russia, and the title of People’s Artist of the USSR and the RSFSR.

Personal life

Nikolai Dobronravov and Alexandra Pakhmutova created not only a creative union, but also a family. The future spouses met in their youth, in 1956. Then Dobronravov worked at the All-Union Radio, where he read poems in the children's program “Pioneer Dawn”. And Pakhmutova was invited to write music for these poems to make children's songs. The first joint composition was the song “Motor Boat”, after which more than a hundred magnificent hits appeared.

That same year, Alexandra Pakhmutova’s personal life also changed: she and Nikolai Nikolaevich fell in love with each other at first sight. Three months later, Dobronravov takes Alexandra to the registry office, and they officially become husband and wife. The composer decided not to wear a white dress with a veil. Her mother sewed an elegant pink suit, and the bride wore it to her own wedding. The young couple spent their honeymoon with relatives in Abkhazia, and upon returning to Moscow they plunged headlong into work.

Alexandra Pakhmutova and her husband did not have their own children. But they realized their unspent love in creativity: their duet created a huge number of youth and children's hits, so Pakhmutova's children were children from all over the country. In addition, the couple closely followed young talents and looked after talented performers, which is why today many musicians and singers call Alexandra Nikolaevna and Vladimir Vladimirovich their second parents.

Few people know that this petite woman (Pakhmutova’s height is 149 cm) is seriously passionate about football and considers herself a fan of this game. Together with her husband, she supports the Russian national team, and Pakhmutova herself is a devoted fan of the Rotor team from her native Volgograd. In a duet with her husband, they even wrote a football song “This is our game”, dedicated to Russian athletes. It remains to add that back in 1968, the name of Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova was immortalized, and on a universal scale: Crimean scientists named a new asteroid after “Pakhmutova”.

Alexandra Pakhmutova now

Now Alexandra Pakhmutova remains an active participant in the cultural life of the country. The composer annually attends music festivals, where he appears as a guest or jury member. A competition-festival of songs by the composer “Nadezhda” is taking place in Nizhny Novgorod, in the final of which the author herself heads the panel of judges. Pakhmutova also oversees the “White Steamship” musical project, which takes place in cities of the Far East. In addition to Pakhmutova, this competition for children from disadvantaged families and the disabled is supported by Nikolai Dobronravov, an opera singer and actor.

With the participation of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, programs dedicated to their work are broadcast on television. At the end of 2017, the couple appeared on the “Tonight” program on Channel One, and a year earlier they became guests on the talk show “Alone with Everyone.”

The composer's creative activity does not stand aside either. In February, the premiere of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov’s new song “Kursk Bulge” took place, which was written specifically for the military television film “Strong Armor”. The work lasted a month and a half, and then the finished material was recorded at the Mosfilm film studio with the participation of a symphony orchestra conducted by S. I. Skripka, the Sretensky Monastery choir and soloist. The film itself, for which this musical composition was created, was broadcast on Channel One during the May holidays of 2018.

Discography

• 1960 – “Songs of Alexandra Pakhmutova”
• 1963 – “Taiga Stars”
• 1975 – “Give joy to people”
• 1980 – “My love is sport”
• 1981 – “Bird of Happiness”
• 1985 – “Battle for Moscow”
• 1995 – “Symphonic works”
• 1996 – “Glow of Love”
• 2003 – “We can’t live without each other”
• 2011 – “Magical New Year”

Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov

One day Alya Pakhmutova, who had just turned three years old, went with her mother Maria Andreevna to the cinema. The film was musical, with a lot of songs and beautiful melodies. Arriving home, the mother went into the kitchen, and the daughter remained in the room where the piano stood in the most visible place. Maria Andreevna was preparing dinner when she suddenly heard someone playing, quite accurately and clearly, melodies from the film she had just watched. Only Alya could play, but she was only three years old and no one had taught her music before! Maria Andreevna entered the room and saw her daughter standing at the piano. She put a stack of books on a chair, took the girl to the piano and listened to her play for a long time in amazement. Later, Alya’s father, a worker at the Beketov timber mill and at the same time a good amateur musician, began to study with Alya. When Alexandra was four years old, she wrote her first musical play, “The Roosters are Crowing.” This is how the career of Alexandra Pakhmutova began - one of the most successful and famous Soviet composers, People's Artist of the USSR, State Prize laureate, author of more than 400 songs and three dozen symphonic works.

Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova was born on November 9, 1929 in the village of Beketovka near Stalingrad. From the very first years of her life, music became her destiny. Ali had no problem choosing a life path - at the age of six, the girl entered the Stalingrad Music School, where she studied before the start of the Great Patriotic War. “When the guns speak, the muses are silent” - in Stalingrad, besieged by the Nazis and subjected to daily destructive bombings, studying music was out of the question. Classes had to be interrupted, and soon the Pakhmutov family was evacuated to Kazakhstan.

How lucky are people who, from childhood, know what they will do and can say to themselves: “This is mine, and nothing, no difficulties will force me to turn away from this path!” Alexandra Pakhmutova can safely be counted among such people. The war was still going on, and she was already going to Moscow to continue her studies. In the summer of 1943, Alya was enrolled in the Central Music School for Gifted Children (now a music school at the Moscow Conservatory). After graduating in 1948, Alexandra entered the Moscow State Conservatory, in the class of the famous composer and excellent teacher Professor Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin. In 1953, Pakhmutova successfully graduated from the conservatory and entered graduate school. Three years later, Alexandra defended her dissertation on the topic “Score of M. I. Glinka’s opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.”

“Undoubtedly, without melodic talent a composer has nothing to do in a song. This is a cruel law, but it’s a law,” Alexandra Nikolaevna once said. - But talent is not a guarantee. How the idea of ​​the song will be embodied, how its thematic grain will develop, how the score will be made, how the recording will be carried out in the studio - all these are not the last questions, and from all of this the image is also formed.” Indeed, to succeed, a composer needs talent. This condition is mandatory, but does not guarantee recognition. There were thousands of music schools in the Soviet Union; every year they graduated thousands of young musicians, including future composers. Many of them were truly talented, but only a few achieved real success and became laureates of various competitions and awards. But it's not about ranks.

Alexandra Pakhmutova is a unique phenomenon. It’s a common cliche, of course, but there’s no other way to say it; the fact remains that people like Pakhmutova are born once every hundred years, or even only once. “Song about restless youth”, “Geologists”, “The main thing, guys, is not to grow old in your heart!”, “Power Line-500”, “Farewell to Bratsk”, “Tired submarine”, “Hugging the sky”, “We teach airplanes to fly” , “Tenderness”, “Eaglets learn to fly”, “You know what kind of guy he was”, “My beloved”, “Old maple”, “Good girls”, “Hot snow”, “Belarus”, “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, “ Heroes of Sports”, “A Coward Doesn’t Play Hockey”, “Team of Our Youth”, “Goodbye, Moscow!”, “And the Fight Continues Again”, “Melody”, “Hope”, “We Can’t Live Without Each Other”, “How young we were” - these songs by Alexandra Pakhmutova were known and sung by the whole country.

Many famous poets wrote poems to the music of Alexandra Pakhmutova: Lev Oshanin, Mikhail Matusovsky, Evgeny Dolmatovsky, Mikhail Lvov, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Sergey Grebennikov, Rimma Kazakova. And yet it is difficult to imagine her music without the poems of Nikolai Dobronravov. They say that without the poet Dobronravov there would be no composer Pakhmutova, and vice versa. One can argue with this, but they suited each other so harmoniously that very quickly one of the most successful creative unions in the USSR took shape, which soon became a family union. It is interesting that Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, for all their fame and popularity, have always treated the press and journalists, let’s say, with caution. Alexandra Nikolaevna and Nikolai Nikolaevich, in general, do not really pamper journalists, and as for their personal life, there is a strict taboo on this issue.

Their fates are similar in many ways. Both were born in November (Nikolai Nikolaevich was born on November 22, 1928 in Leningrad), both in childhood had to learn what war and evacuation were. But if Alexandra Pakhmutova literally began studying music at the age of three and it became her life’s work, then Nikolai Dobronravov did not immediately find his path and purpose. After graduating from school in 1942, Nikolai entered first the Moscow City Teachers' Institute, and then the Nemirovich-Danchenko School-Studio at the Moscow Art Theater. After graduating from the studio school, Nikolai Dobronravov worked as an actor at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators. Here he met actor Sergei Grebennikov, with whom he wrote several New Year's fairy tales staged in the Palaces of Pioneers and clubs in Moscow. At first, this was a kind of entertainment for the actors, but soon Nikolai and Sergei began to engage in literary activities professionally. The authors wrote several plays and dramatizations for the editorial office of the musical and children's broadcasting of the All-Union Radio; the plays “Spikelet - the Magic Mustache” and “The Secret of the Big Brother” were staged in the country’s puppet theaters.

In the mid-60s, Nikolai Dobronravov ended his acting career. At this time, the play “The Lighthouse Lights Up,” written by him together with S. Grebennikov (in 1962, it was published by the Young Guard publishing house), was successfully performed at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators, and at the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater an opera based on Dobronravov’s libretto was staged and Grebennikov “Ivan Shadrin”. In 1970, N. Dobronravov became a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR. His stories “Set Away, Sail Away!”, “Vacation is Coming,” “The Third is Not Superfluous,” and poetry collections “Gagarin’s Constellation,” “Poems and Songs,” “Taiga Fires,” “Eternal Alarm,” and “Poems” are published. But of course, the song occupies an exceptional place in the work of Nikolai Dobronravov. Poems set to music are the core of a poet’s life, “and there is no life without fate, and without fate there is no song,” he wrote in the song “A Record of My Memory.”

The work of Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov is so diverse that their songs were sung by singers so dissimilar in style and manner of performance as L. Zykina, S. Lemeshev, G. Ots, M. Magomaev, Yu. Gulyaev, I. Kobzon, L. Leshchenko , E. Khil, M. Kristalinskaya, E. Piekha, V. Tolkunova, A. Gradsky, T. Gverdtsiteli, Yulian, N. Mordyukova, L. Senchina, P. Dementyev, M. Boyarsky, Biser Kirov.

Of course, for the generation of the “sixties”, children of the Thaw who breathed in the air of freedom, the Komsomol-party lyrics of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov are a symbol of the “scoop” with which party ideologists tried to replace Western music. Yes, the Beatles never officially appeared in the USSR, but the songs of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov were heard everywhere - on television, radio, pioneer lines, government concerts. But, in addition, their songs were sung by the people, and isn’t this an indicator of love and recognition? And the whole world knew the song “Goodbye, Moscow!”, the farewell anthem of the Moscow Olympics-80, and not only knew it, but cried when the Olympic Bear flew into the Moscow sky to the tune of this melody.

The authorities awarded Alexandra Pakhmutova titles and prizes (Alexandra Nikolaevna - People's Artist of the USSR (1984), laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1967), laureate of the USSR State Prizes (1975, 1982), Hero of Socialist Labor), but the same authorities for a long time refused to receive the composer normal apartment. Sometimes some songs were banned. The most textbook and absurd example is “Song of Lenin,” written for choral performance. The line “...Ilyich says goodbye to Moscow...” caused dissatisfaction. At the audition, Pakhmutova and Dobronravov were explained that Ilyich could not say goodbye to Moscow, since he was in it forever. “Song of Veterans of the First Belorussian Front” was banned because it mentioned Zhukov and Rokossovsky, but there was not a word about Brezhnev, “the main hero of the Great Patriotic War” in stagnant times. Fatal motives were seen in the music of the song “And the Battle Continues Again,” which is why the artistic council had serious complaints, and only at the cost of incredible efforts was the song able to be defended. All this, of course, did not bring joy, but Alexandra Nikolaevna always had a philosophical attitude towards such things. “If it’s not today, it means it will be out tomorrow,” she said in an interview, “it’s stupid to sit and accumulate grievances when you can still have time to compose so many things. Even today I don’t suffer from lack of demand. We must try to live in the rhythm of youth.”

And it’s not easy to live and create in the rhythm of youth, although Alexandra Pakhmutova is accustomed to the change of eras. She started writing music under Stalin, then there was a thaw, Brezhnev times, perestroika. The time has come for change, the relationship between composers, poets and artists has changed, the music world began to live according to commercial rules. Nowadays no one is surprised that for a song, especially a good one, you have to pay, and pay a lot. But Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov remained true to their principles. “We have never sold songs and will never do this,” Alexandra Nikolaevna recently said in an interview with the Vecherniy Minsk newspaper. - Yes, and how do you imagine it? We meet with the singer, discuss the song, try this and that, drink coffee, talk. And then I say: “Now let’s pay”? This is impossible".

Of course, now the songs of Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov appear less and less on television and radio; their work, as they say in the modern musical “get-together”, has become “non-format”. But this does not frighten the authors; Alexandra Nikolaevna and Nikolai Nikolaevich, as always, are optimistic about the future. They are often asked about their creative plans and what they are doing. “What else should a composer and poet do? Of course, we write songs,” answers Alexandra Pakhmutova. And Nikolai Dobronravov, sitting next to him, as usual, adds: “And we will do this as long as we live...”