The "Song of the Volga Boatmen" (known in Russian as: Эй, ухнем! - [Ey, ukhnem!, "yo, heave-ho!"], after the refrain, is a well-known traditional Russian song collected by Mily Balakirev, and published in his book of folk songs in 1866. It was sung by burlaks, or barge-haulers, on the Volga River. Balakirev published it with only one verse (the first). The other two verses were added at a later date. Ilya Repin's famous painting, Barge Haulers on the Volga, depicts such burlaks in Tsarist Russia toiling along the Volga.
The Alexandrov Ensemble choir (established Moscow 1926) is the choir of the Alexandrov Ensemble.
It has for most of its history been a male-voice choir of tenors and basses, based in Moscow and directed and conducted by Alexander V. Alexandrov from 1926 to 1946, by his son Boris A. Alexandrov from 1946 to 1987, and by various directors up to the present. It has always consisted of Soviet and then Russian Red Army personnel, and has been held to represent that army at home and abroad. Since the 1990s, female army personnel have occasionally been included in the choir as sopranos. Since 2007 boy sopranos and altos from the associated choir school have joined the choir for some of the time.
On December 25, 2016, a plane containing 92 people, including over 60 members of the choir, crashed while en route to Latakia, Syria.
Source: Wiki
24 авг 2024