The day Gorbachev sang for the BBC

The day Gorbachev sang for the BBC

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norman lebrecht

March 03, 2016

The last Soviet leader is 85 this week.

Two years ago, on his birthday, he broke into song during a Steve Rosenberg interview.

Not a bad baritone. Click to watch here.

gorbachev sings

Comments

  • Petros LInardos says:

    Very charming. The other man leaning against the piano must be his translator, Pavel Palazhchenko – arguably an icon from the last years of the Soviet Union.

    • RODNEY GREENBERG says:

      Whenever Pavel appeared on the newsreels I used to imagine Toscanini had come back to life as a top level Soviet translator.

  • fred says:

    the greatest musical moment of his life -at least so he said in an interview was Del Monaco’s appearance as don José at the Bolshoi in 1959.
    A major event at that time. He attended with Raisa..

  • John Borstlap says:

    A great man…. he cancelled the Cold War (he could do that because the Russians had started it) and prevented war from breaking-out when the DDR collapsed. Incredible such politician emerged in the Soviet Union, this cradle of inhumanity. It offers some hope for the future.

    • Holly Golightly says:

      Yes, I think “Gorbie” is truly a modern hero and he risked all to force the USSR into the 20th century!!

      In spite of Communism/Marxism being one of the most hideous social experiments in world history there are plenty of lefties and cultural marxists around today who still admire its nostrums and who want to resuscitate some of its more ‘appealing’ aspects. (I wonder what these could be? A fondness for suppression, violence, censorship, thought-policing, barbarianism, mining salt in Siberia perhaps? Well, we have the thought police already.)

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