Alexey Kortnev: rock and roll is like ditties. Alexey Kortnev: “The rejection of democratic freedoms is terrible, disgusting, but now it is necessary

A conversation with Alexey Kortnev took place in the press room of the Tulskaya regional philharmonic... The musician came out for an interview in good mood, with a smile on his face.

- Alexey "negligent concert" is an absolute interactive, who came up with this idea?

In our country, as a rule, ideas are born together. We invented this thing a long time ago, about 15 years ago, on brainstorming... Maybe 10 years ago - I don't remember very well the time periods. We played them, then we got tired and we abandoned this business. And a year and a half ago this genre was revived again, now it is doing very well. nowadays people want not only to listen, but to participate, and so that all this is not deafeningly loud and at home. It is clear why: we have practically lost this in everyday life, such gatherings with a guitar. I think that's why this genre is in demand.

- Well, this is always a kind of risk?

At first we had mistakes in the organization, but now we have overcome all of this. Previously, we did not limit the number of people who go on stage, now we understand that this is no more than two people and no longer than one song. As for the risk ... No one among our audience ever went to a scandal and there were no inadequate spectators on the stage. However, if this happens, it will even be interesting.

- The group is 33 years old, the success is proven. Who is your audience now, and what might surprise the Accident group?

Some external events may surprise you. But what happens at our concerts no longer surprises me. On the other hand, we are waiting, maybe something extraordinary will happen. And our audience is still the same educated, intelligent people from 25 to 55 years old. But we see very young people at concerts, which is very nice. Of course, there are more than 15-year-old girls at the boy band's performances, but we also meet such girls.

I don’t know yet - they hide everything from me, like from a seriously ill person. I know that we are going somewhere with my wife and mother. I suspect that a whole crowd of people will go with us, but they don't tell me anything. And on the 10th, for some reason we are going to Sheremetyevo, maybe we'll just have lunch there. I don't expect any gifts. I was lucky and I always had what I wanted. O material goods I don't dream at all. I dream of world peace, so that all this he *** nya that is happening around Russia and other countries will stop.

Alexey Kortnev and Kamil Larin.

We will have a performance-show "Two by 50". The script has already been written. We invited a bunch of friends with whom we spent half our lives. These are Quartet I, Valdis Pelsh, Andryusha Makarevich, Zhenya Margulis, Bi 2, Max Leonidov, Ira Bogushevskaya, Tanya Lazareva, Diana Arbenina ... These are the people with whom we interacted in the cinema, in the theater, on the stage.

- What is the number 50 for you? Is it time to take stock or is this just the beginning?

This figure means absolutely nothing to me. This is half of a hundred, but it is clear that most of population of the earth does not live for a hundred years. Therefore, this is by no means half of life, but much more. 35 or 40 years means much more to a person.

Valdis Pelsh and Alexey Kortnev, mid-1980s.

- You organized the "Accident" group together with Valdis Pelsh. How often do you see each other now?

We are guaranteed to see each other once a month - we play a performance together. Plus, we are doing some projects together. Seryozha Chekryzhov and I, our main composer, write music and lyrics for him. We invite Valdis to all our significant events, for example, to concerts dedicated to our 30th anniversary. Now, at the celebration of my 50th birthday, he will shine on stage. So basically we communicate on business, but we come up with these cases with great pleasure.

- What are you most nostalgic for from the times of the USSR?

In my own youth. And there were very few cars on the roads - it was nice. Everything else was worse.

- You have more than 40 film roles under your belt. How do you manage to combine everything?

I have no filming at all now. I refuse a lot, I cannot and do not want to change stage activity for filming. If I was offered to be offered to film with Andron Konchalovsky, then I would have approached this more carefully and probably would have freed up time for filming. Job offers in various TV shows or uninteresting films are not worth giving up concerts and performances.

Alexey Kortnev and the Saltykov-Shchedrin Show team.

- You are now hosting the Saltykov-Shchedrin show on NTV. What can we expect from new releases?

There will be very interesting stories. We have already filmed quite a few programs ahead. Some things will be very poignant, the songs will be funny and again poignant, which is nice. I think that the show is unlikely to last too long, because its range of topics is very limited. After a season, people will get tired of looking at the problems of housing and communal services, although these problems will not go away. But it is impossible to tell the same anecdote every evening. So I understand what it is temporary project or maybe a launching pad for something innovative.

- And what emotions does another NTV show "By the mouth of a baby" bring to you?

Exceptional joy! There, communication with these wonderful kids is a pure delight! I think that this program will live forever, although it will not be able to win a wide audience. But parents will always be interested in this program. It doesn't matter who will lead it.

- You have five personal consultants for this program. What are your children passionate about?

My eldest son Tyoma. Having found various positions, he came to me to work as a senior administrator at our School of Three Arts (a school led by actress Nonna Grishaeva, choreographer Yegor Druzhinin and musician Alexei Kortnev. - Ed.), which we opened in Khimki. Nikita is studying at the Institute of Radio Electronics and Automation. Senya and Afonya go to school, Asya goes to kindergarten. Let it be for now.

- Your wishes to our readers.

Health, more money, economic miracle and peace!

Alexey Kortnev with his wife Amina, sons Arseny and Afanasy, daughter Aksinia.

Dossier

He wrote his first songs in the seventh grade of an English special school in Moscow.

He studied at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, but did not graduate from the university.

In 1983, together with Valdis Pelsh, he created the "Accident" group.

Translator of texts of popular foreign musicals staged in Russia ("Cats", "Eastwick Witches", " Mamma mia!", "The beauty and the Beast").

Host on NTV of the show "By the mouth of a baby" and "Saltykov-Shchedrin show".

Family: the third wife of Amin Zaripov, son of Artemy (from the first wife of Irina Bogushevskaya), son of Nikita (from Elena Lanskaya), from Amina - the sons of Arseny and Afanasy, daughter of Aksinia.

Selected filmography: "Moscow Saga", "Night Sisters", "Election Day", "Lilac Branch", "Radio Day", "What Men Talk About", "Boiling Point", "There Was Love", "Angel on Duty", "Rzhevsky against Napoleon", "Kukushechka".

Accident group - 35. Time to summarize. There are dozens of hits: “Generals do not let me sleep”, “I am freaking out, mom”, “What did you mean”, “Zoology” ... Until recently, they did not leave TV screens, they were in tough rotation on the radio. Plus films: "Election Day", "Radio Day" ... And even now, against the background of the general crisis, this is one of the most successful groups. It would seem that everything is going well. But Kortnev does not look like a winner, rather the opposite.

- Alexey, what have you, your group, your generation come to over the years?

- Our generation, the generation of 50-year-olds, unfortunately, lost. We lived very superficially. And the fact that we have all now received a nosebleed from the authorities is, by and large, natural.

While we were singing, having fun, staging performances about how good it is to go to freedom and democracy and what funny incidents happen along the way, the carriage turned its shafts and went back at full speed.

— Lost generation?

- No, it’s the loser. For themselves personally, many have just won. For example, I live a fairly wealthy life. Most of my friends are in demand, society is still interested in them.

- So, maybe that's the point? Smart, honest, intelligent people could not resist the temptation of success, a sweet life, big money... And we made a compromise with the authorities. It started long before Putin. Back in 1996, you were on the Vote or Lose tour. They say they paid a fantastic fee for those concerts.

- Yes, good. Moreover, I then campaigned for Chernomyrdin, although I was friends with the Union of Right Forces. There was such a project "Old songs in our house", and I was an entertainer there. Remember the party "Our Home is Russia"? It was then that "Old Songs about the Most Important Things" came out on ORT, and almost all the musicians who took part in it went to campaign with terrible force for Chernomyrdin. This was the first huge amount of money I made.

I worked and did not really think about what it would lead to. But even if I thought about it. I was definitely on the side of Yeltsin, and even more so of the young reformers. Young, perky, beautiful. And most importantly, in language, in psychotype, and simply in age, they are completely different. For whom should we agitate, if not for our own people? Our audience was the same: students prestigious universities with progressive views... Thinking educated public.

- And not poor.

- Yes, then managers of large companies grew out of them. Our audience is not very wide, but well-endowed. We still play concerts for them, less often public, more often private.

- Corporate events?

- Exactly.

- How interesting. You took part in supporting the prisoners of Bolotnaya, in supporting Navalny. And at the same time they played at corporate parties with people against whom, in fact, the protest was directed.

- Not certainly in that way. For ten years now we have not played with officials, only with businessmen.

- Where does Gazprom belong? Is it government or business?

- Yes, they played for Gazprom employees. You can take a radical position and say that you can't play private concerts at all, because the money has to be stolen. All big fortunes are made dishonestly, as Bender said. And it is true. But if you radicalize your existence in this way, you will be left with a naked torso. I am by no means trying to present us as innocent lambs. We make compromises, we make money in today's Russia, where everything is riddled with corruption, every bill, every product. But if a person is at least not disgusted to look in the eyes, we play.

What are corporate parties! Sorry, I was the moderator at the meeting of the musicians with President Medvedev. He gave me cufflinks with two-headed eagles! And I sang him "Smoke on the Water", his favorite song. Specially taught. Is this not an extreme compromise?

- Why was it done?

- My main argument: interesting. Isn't it interesting to meet and talk with the president of your country? I didn’t ask him for anything, he didn’t offer me anything. Except for the cufflinks. We then sold them for crazy money and donated to a charitable foundation.

- Did you understand something about our power at this meeting?

- Nothing. A purely tourist experience. I liked Dmitry Anatolyevich's shoes, wonderful shoes. But that's all.

- So was it worth it? After that, thousands of people said: aha, Kortnev sold out to the authorities!

- It's unpleasant when you are scolded, labeled, bullied. But it is even more offensive when they are being bullied not on business. Well, to whom did I sell myself, why? All this is past the checkout. Recently, the SBU closed my entry to the territory of Ukraine. And it is also not clear why. We have never played concerts in Crimea.

- But there was a reason. In 2014, you gave a scandalous interview to the Free Press, where you approved the annexation of Crimea.

- It is strange that they remembered this only now, almost four years later. Since then I have visited Ukraine twenty times. Last time played a concert in the Ukrainian musical theater in Odessa, and everything was fine.

- I remember your anti-war performance at Invasion. I remember how you stood up for Zemfira in an ugly persecution over the Ukrainian flag. But it was also an interview ...

- Listen, it was right after joining, I did not understand what was happening. And nobody understood. Since then there was time to figure it out, now I have different views on the Crimea.

But I am ready to repeat the main thing from that interview even now: thank God that there was no bloodshed and direct military intervention. Wouldn't it be better if rivers of blood flow?

- Those whose youth came in the 2000s will call them a wonderful era. Listened to your songs, traveled, drove expensive cars eating in expensive restaurants. And now they were pulled out of this cozy world into a much tougher one. What went wrong, what do you think?

- I think that this flywheel, this patriotic hysteria, started just from Ukraine.

- And before that everything was like that?

- Of course not. Landing of Khodorkovsky, dispersal of NTV ...

- God bless him, with Khodorkovsky. There were islands of Europe in the country, oases of fat life. And around them were millions of beggars. This is worse than overclocking NTV. But I see that many are fighting today to get it all back and live again like in the 2000s. Why return? After all, it will end again the same.

- If the pendulum swings back, towards the liberal side, it will not be the same anyway. Although the devil only knows. How to live on and what to do is generally unclear. And I think, not only to me alone.

I hope that they will survive and be able to benefit their people, their homeland.

- And you yourself did not have the idea of ​​leaving?

- It appears regularly, but no, the answer is no. I have traveled a lot around the world and I understand that I want to work only here. This is my audience. After all, I write songs in Russian.

- That is, there are purely professional reasons, or are you a patriot? I do not put a negative sense in this word.

- Me too. Probably a patriot. I recently listened to Drapeko's speech that we need to create a commission on morality. In fact, censorship. Every day some kind of nonsense comes to the surface. And when I hear such things, I want them to leave, not me. Well, yes, now I am a loser, but this will not always be so, I hope.

- Look what happens. You are a patriot and at the same time a liberal. And we are constantly assured that these are antonymic words.

- In general, we are constantly being bred into false oppositions. This is such an ideological method: plus and minus, black and white, without nuances. Either a patriot or a liberal. Or either. It is interesting how patriotism is interpreted in this case: a patriot is obliged to hate Pindos. Not to be friends with other people, loving your homeland, but to love your homeland, hating everyone around you. That is, according to their version, hatred is such a form of love.

- And how to resist it?

- Softly, without aggression. Write, sing, speak.

- What can I expect from you in this plane?

- Still how to wait. We are now actively writing the musical "In the city of False Dmitry", which we will play on large venues, and in clubs. According to the plot, False Dmitrov is such a monotown, built in the 1950s around nuclear reactor... There, under the dome of radiation, everything is different than in the outside world. They have an eternal mayor who does not die or grow old, and a cult of the person who founded this city. I will not tell you further. This is already a spoiler.

- What is the message?

- In criticism of the existing system, of course. The main character triumphs over evil. This is a musical, there cannot be a happy ending.

- That is, you still leave some hope for people.

“That’s the whole point.

- You are not a prophet, neither am I, but let's try to simulate the near future. Rock will finally become a retro genre. Three or four names will remain in the hearing. So?

- Well, five. It's like an opera. Who do we know? Placido Domingo, Carreras, two or three more artists - that's all. I’m happy that I managed to hop on the rock and roll train at the last stop, but now it’s not a train anymore, it’s a museum.

- The regime will become tougher, landings will take place.

- Apparently, yes.

- Young people will increasingly take to the streets. This, in fact, is already happening. By the way, I wonder what they will sing at the same time.

- When they buried Nemtsov, they carried posters with the phrase "I'm crazy, mom." We released this song a week before he was killed. Nobody sang, they just carried posters. I was shocked.

— Ukrainian war will gradually come to naught, but something else will begin, they will make a new porridge.

- The war is stagnating, like the conflict in Karabakh, like Transnistria, like the occupation of Cyprus. And the new one, yes, they will try to stir up. It is profitable to fight.

- This is my picture of the future. And you?

- Very similar. On the other hand, people thought the same way three or four years before perestroika. They sat and said: "Nothing will change, stagnation for another dozen years." These things happen suddenly. And exactly when you least expect them, when it seems that everything is already over.

P.S.

December 8 the project " Live communication"Will present in the CHA" Conversation with a guitar with Alexei Kortnev. " The evening is hosted by Ksenia Knorre-Dmitrieva, author of Novaya Gazeta.

You got out now new album, there will be concerts, interviews. What helps you keep yourself in good working order?

The most important thing is the correct male daily routine. In the morning - physical exercises, in the evening - alcohol in the right amount. And I am also encouraged by the thought that this will soon be over. Now every day is loaded, but I know that it is exactly until the 19th. Then rest. Then work again. The thought of future breaks is very supportive and makes me give all the best.

I would not say that Amina is a physically strong person. She was not in the sport of building insane muscle mass... So we definitely don't have any problems with this. And the woman remains fragile, as she should be. Although professional sports educate a person very much, it organizes him. Here in the family she is just organizing - building a house, interacting with all sorts of nannies ... She does it very well.

Is she also responsible for physical fitness in the family? As an athlete?

No, she is not interested in this at all now, her pupils are quite enough for her - she is an honored trainer Russian Federation... I follow my uniform and my sons, make them go to different sections. Moreover, I play sports much more than she does, simply because she is already tired of it. So from the side of the wife - absolutely no pressure or advice on this matter. It suits me very much.

First of all, a devotee. And preferably smart. I really do not like stupid people, although I recognize their right to exist. But I would never be able to connect life with such a woman. By the way, among my friends and acquaintances, everyone is distinguished by a great liveliness of mind.

How old is your oldest son?

At 23, everyone is first of all dunce. I went crazy, wrote songs, staged performances ... Artyom was goofing, doing photography, writing something. Men's toys are changing, interests are shifting, but this is small things ... And the way of life, thinking, ideas - everything is almost the same, I do not see strong differences.

Well, here's how to answer ... Now I know that one is enough. But before I met Amina, I led a rather relaxed lifestyle, cohabited with beautiful women and did not care at all. This does not mean that you need a lot of women, it means that while you are looking for, there may be two of them, or maybe twenty-two. And then you meet yours, having already typed life experience and then these men's troubles - getting married or being a bachelor - disappear! If all these doubts are still spinning in your head, then something is wrong in the relationship.

Of course! No, if there is a desire to build a family at the age of 20, you can try. But it is highly likely that all this will end as soon as you want new experiences.

Alexey Kortnev - about his civil position, the upcoming anniversary of the "Accident" and the refusal of the "First Channel".

On February 2, in the capital "Arena Moscow", the popular Moscow band "Misfortune" will play a big solo session, which was supposed to take place last year, but failed for a good reason. Before the concert with the leader of the National Assembly Alexei Kortnev, the Izvestia columnist Mikhail Margolis had a heart-to-heart talk.

- You fell ill last fall so that "Accident" had to cancel a dozen planned performances, including a large Moscow solo album.

- Is this the same specialist who treats Valery Kipelov, Pelageya?

You, apparently, are talking about Lev Borisovich Rudin. He is a first-class therapist, and in his office we really often intersect with the same Pelageya. He referred me to Ivanchenko, because therapeutic methods could not solve my problem. In the summer, apparently, I quail, and even got a thorough cold under the air conditioners and finished off my voice at the London Olympics, where I screamed in the stands like a real fan.

- Is the concert in the "Arena" in essence your "return of debts"?

Yes, and for those who were going to it in November, the tickets purchased then are valid. We want to show some new songs, but not much. In my opinion, to arrange premieres in large hall not quite right. Here you have to play what people already know.

- While you were being treated, a series of events took place in our country, the “law of Dima Yakovlev,” for example, was adopted. Can the mood and morals of this winter be reflected in your upcoming works?

You know, I realized that I cannot react so quickly to the current circumstances. So for the performance to make some hard couplets and insert them, say, into the song "Snowflake" - this is please. Soon we will have regular broadcasts of Radio Day, and there I’m talking about the State Duma, its activities and laws will definitely write something. This is a feuilleton genre. And I don't write serious songs quickly. I really envy the ability of Vasya Oblomov or Dima Bykov to instantly and efficiently respond to events.

- But I'm not talking so much about feuilleton essays, as about your recognizable sad philosophicality. The one that, for example, manifested itself again in volume in the last album of the National Assembly "The Tunnel at the End of the World". Relatively speaking, are you ripe for the songs "Sasha walked along the highway-2" or "Tears of men-2"?

Yes, I am working on such a thing. It, shall we say, accumulates in me like an avalanche. Since the level of idiocy in the country, unfortunately, is growing every month.

- Is your wife, multiple world champion in rhythmic gymnastics Amina Zaripova, in solidarity with you or does she care? Say, can she go to an opposition rally?

She understands everything perfectly. Although initially Musya was rather neutral about my “civic engagement”. However, what a special activity I have there ... I'm not the organizer of the protest movement, but just a sluggish person in it. But Musya has already gone to the recent march on January 13 against the "law of scoundrels" with me. In our company there were about 30 people, and in fact half of them went to the rally for the first time, while about seven people are my friends, specifically dealing with the topic of orphanages and charity. They were simply shocked by what the Duma deputies had done.

- Sergei Nikitin, as you probably know, refused to participate in anniversary party Yuri Bashmet after certain public statements of the famous violist. Are you ready to react in a similar way for yourself?

Yes. For example, literally an hour ago I turned down an offer to try myself as a host of one of the popular news programs on Channel One. True, I was told that "we have a completely apolitical program." But I answered: sorry guys, I can’t. Appear on "First" as a grimacing artist - please. But to become a repeater of the opinion of the channel's management is contrary to my principles. This is what I wrote in a letter to those who invited me, and stressed that my attitude towards this TV does not apply specifically to them.

- Has anyone already told you: “Well, that's it, Lesha, after such an answer you yourself have burnt all the“ bridges ”on the“ First ”?

And nobody knows yet. I tell you first. Morally, in principle, I am ready to part with Channel One if they somehow jealously react to this refusal of mine. I will not say that I will suffer much, although, of course, I will be a little sorry for some of the big glamorous programs in which you can take part from time to time. But everything, as they say, has a cost. And I am not ready to pay such a high moral price to stay in the First Channel.

- But now you are playing in the musical "The Probers", created based on the work of the notorious conformist of his time, Valentin Kataev, in the theater of the now successful cultural official Mikhail Shvydkoy.

I started working with Shvydkoy a couple of years ago and got along with him quite closely, but exclusively on theatrical basis. I really don't know anything about his life outside the theater and have never been interested in it. Therefore, I have an absolutely positive attitude towards Mikhail Efimovich.

- I wasn’t curious about him: why did you, Mikhail Efimovich, “eat Gorbushka”?

It was not he who ate it, but the enterprise to which it belongs - the Khrunichev plant. And this happened long before Shvydkoy agreed to set up his own theater there. For several years Gorbushka was empty. I was even offered at some point to become artistic director of this DK.

- What mission?

To do there what I think of. And the owners of Gorbushka were ready to invest in new light and sound equipment, to re-equip the dilapidated hall, etc. But everything remained at the level of conversations.

- This year will be for you to a greater extent the year of your independent projects: in the theater, cinema, on TV, or is it the year of "Accident"?

Of course, the second. For this year the National Assembly is celebrating its 30th anniversary, for which we are slowly starting to prepare now. I'm not sure that I will be able to write some new bright songs directly for the anniversary, but maybe they are not required for such a holiday. It is better to turn to the origins, to raise something forgotten or unreleased.

- I remembered your duet etude with Andrey Makarevich "They hit with crowbars." Isn't it a popular feature today for high-profile performances or videos on the Web? Would you like to try some more? The same Vasya Oblomov sings with Noise and Cord, with Ksenia Sobchak and Leonid Parfenov.

By the 30th anniversary of the National Assembly, we have planned to make a bunch of funny duets in the spirit of just mentioned by you "They beat with crowbars". God willing, it will turn out into a kind of skit for forty minutes at the beginning of our anniversary concert... Max Leonidov, Tanya Lazareva, Nonna Grishaeva, Andryusha Makarevich promise to participate in it. This will original story, not a reworking of our old songs in the Kavean spirit. Maybe it will come out a la musical, in shape reminiscent of our "Last Days in Paradise". If it works out talentedly, perhaps later it will go to separate short numbers.

I would like to believe. Soon after the release of Tunnel at the End of the World, I would probably proudly agree, “Oh, yes, yes! I feel that way too. " But now I am very worried that two and a half years have passed since the release of this album, and I have not yet composed anything comparable to it. Of course, any scribbler is haunted by the fear of losing the gift of writing. But he is right now suffocating me. Hopefully overcome it.