After a while, their love faded and Strok returned to his family in Latvia. During this period, he wrote his most famous tangos— When Spring comes again, My Last Tango and Oh, those Black Eyes.
The success of Oscar Strock’ s tango was underscored by the London Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Marek Weber. This orchestra recorded Strok’ s tangos at the famous firm Victor Gramaphone Company, also known as HMV or His Master’ s Voice. Around 1930, Strok’ s friendship with a singer and dancer Petr Leshchenko began, when the latter came to perform at private closed evenings and in restaurants in Riga. The composer was inspired by the voice and manner of Leshchenko’ s performance and invited him to take part in his jazz and tango project.
Petr Leshchenko was an artist of Ukrainian roots who had participated in musical ensembles and survived the First World War in his youth. He toured Latvia and developed a friendship with Strok led to his enormous popularity. In the 1930s, more than 80 recordings were made of his tangos, foxtrots and ballads, including Senorita, Tatiana, Lola, and of course, the famous Dark Eyes( Ochi Chornya). This last tango turned out to be so popular all over the world that Strok and Leshchenko were invited to tour not only throughout Europe, but also Japan.
The fate of another popular Russian performer of tangos and ballads, Vadim Kozin, was cast in the 1930s. During the 1920s, Kozin, who had a gypsy roots, became known for his vivid romantic ballads, combining the seemingly impossible the gypsy passion with the intellectual dreaminess of the Russian aristocracy. When tango recordings became popular in Russia, Kozin recorded such works as Autumn, Forgotten Tango, and reinterpreted Tango of Death, originally performed by Iza Kremer.
In 1929, Alexander Vertinsky recorded his Palestinian Tango, dedicated to emigration and a sad journey into that unknown country. In 1931, while in Bessarabia, he produced the famous tango Magnolia which begins with the words In banana-lemon Singapore. This tango is almost comically ironic, but it has a lyrical overtones and symbols of the unattainable dream of the Russian aristocracy— to travel to a distant country, in happiness and safety.
This theme of emigration continued in 1934, when Vertinsky wrote a another tango The Yellow Angel about the inglorious life of an artist performing in a jazz cabaret far from his native country.
AlexanderTsfasman
Another phenomenon in the history of Russian tango is Alexander Tsfasman’ s orchestra. He began his band in 1926 as a jazz ensemble. But by the 1930s, when tango reached the peak of its popularity, the orchestra began to play tangos together with other foreign genres. After a while the tango I’ m Infinitely Sorry became the signature calling card of the group. The authorship of this melody was mistakenly attributed to Tsfasman himself, but it was only his arrangement. Its origins are France. Nevertheless, rumors only contributed to its popularity.
Another tango hit was The Wearied Sun, which is probably the best known than all other Russian and Soviet tangos. This melody came to Russia from Poland, its author was Jerzy Petersbursky, the first lyrics was written by Zenon Friedwald. The name given by the author was This Last Sunday. People later began to call it Suicide Tango. The song instantly won the Polish popularity and became famous in neighboring Russia. Since the Polish lyrics could not be performed in Russia, three variants of lyrics were written in Russian: the author of the first was Asta Galla— Song of the South, and a second by Alexandr Volkov— Leaves are falling from the Maple. However, certainly the most popular version was by Joseph Alvek— The Wearied Sun.
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