Andrey Karaulov about Alexander Gradsky: The “Voice” gave him everything, but in the end it took his life

“...Once I saw Sasha crying. It was only once. And he did not cry, he sobbed, sobbing like a woman, and was not ashamed of his sobs. And what happened? A personal grief: Tikhon Nikolaevich Khrennikov died, with whom Sasha, of course, was familiar. I have never been friends at home... But - Khrennikov was the great person.

One of the few greats whose departure for Gradsky was, to some extent, the departure of himself. Like your own death.

He could not live without the greats. Without the greats, he felt bad. He felt bad without Evgeny Svetlanov, without Tikhon Khrennikov. I'm not sure that he knew Sviridov personally, but he felt bad without Sviridov. Because that was his world. It was the real world.

He had an impeccable intellectual ear, I would say so.

He immediately saw the real. He mocked us when I tried to sing, and my little son Vaska also tried to sing something like that.

And he said, in this idiotic family, yours, only one person sings - mom. My mum.

...Sasha created a world of authenticity around him.

It was impossible to deceive him, to cheat. I'm talking about an ear for music. Therefore, his kids from "Voice"...

And "The Voice" is the project that gave him everything, but in the end took his life. Because on the last "Voice"... He could not offend Kostya Ernst, he went to Ostankino on the bed.

He no longer walked, did not want to walk, because his leg hurt. And although the operation on the leg was done wonderfully, he still did not get to his feet. And he rode on the bed.

He had after covid, when he got out easily enough, although he was seriously ill, he came out easily, tired, but easily.

He really liked the bed he had in Lapino, with a kick-up one, so he bought one for himself. And on it he went to Ostankino, November 18, to act in the final "Voice", where he felt bad. And the pressure was already 60 to 40, even that. This is all after covid, because he did not walk, and because while he was ill with covid, he did not lose weight, although there was a hope that the impossible would happen and he would lose a few ... He could not lose weight, it didn’t work.

Because the most important thing was sybarism. The most important thing was that he wanted to live the way he wanted, regardless of even common sense.

The Master and Margarita was written. He spent more than twenty years composing his Master. He pasted this opera by sheet music. This is not a rock opera at all. A truly outstanding piece of music, completely unknown to the country. Sasha wrote it for twenty-five years, it was the work of his life.

He even had the artist Faith, after his death, sang in The Master and Margarita. He was mainly assigned to play fascists or some bad people in fairy tales. But the diction was such that Gradsky took some of his sounds from the tapes of old films and superimposed them on the music, and it turned out that Veit was almost singing with him.

And Lyudmila Ivanovna Kasatkina in the Master. And Vladimir Ivanovich Zeldin in his "Master", where Sasha sings himself, where is his music, where is all of his ... And not a single performance on stage.

Although he had money. He could probably give up some of his fees in the Palace of Congresses .. I offered him, more than once.

But then there was another misfortune: the viewer left, the viewer left for whom he would like to stage, sing ... Whom he would like to serve. The spectator who was worthy of him left, just left.

And when the theater finally opened ... How he thanked Luzhkov for this building. It was at my house, Luzhkov was already retired, on New Year's Eve some kind of Yuri Mikhailovich. He got up and said, I probably would not have lived already, but here is the theater that you have created for me ... His heart spoke.

It all went away. Friends are gone, Luzhkov is gone, the viewer is gone.

And he no longer wanted, even for himself, to listen to The Master.

The time has changed. Gradsky was in a different time. And at this time he was half-dead Gradsky. Gradsky, who suddenly could say yes everything already, I sailed, everything, nothing more, I will not do anything, I don’t want to do, stay, well, all of you.

He saw what kind of relationship between Marina and his little and loved ones - and older children.

He knew that when he was in a coma, no one would be around.

Because there is a safe that must be opened before someone has time to get to it. And in the safe, maybe there is something, and for sure there is something, and let it get to me. He knew it would be so.

He had a stroke for at least three days.

There was a nurse, there was a friend of Sasha. Relatives were all somewhere outside the city. Everyone has their own life, their own affairs.

But he didn't want to be prevented from dying. He did not want to live.

Already when the speech began to get confused, and when the pressure was 60 to 40, and when he became very ill in Ostankino, he did not allow to call the doctors.

Only when I fell into unconsciousness. The nurse, whom his former wife found, called an ambulance, right there for him. Naturally, they took it away.

He said goodbye to everyone by transferring the covid. And he finally formalized his relationship with his wife, which was not there before.

He believed that he had done everything and had enough for him. Enough, that's all. They sailed.

There was one more reason for this ... All this is like a failed, and maybe a suicide. “Don't let the doctors in”, “let me be alone” ...

... Gradsky lived only by himself all his life. All his life he was interested, first of all, in himself. Such was Daniil Granin, who at the end of his life said: "I am interested in me."

Sasha was interested in him all his life. The rest will come later.

He, the music, is that incredible, bottomless depth into which he plunges and in which he feels good. His element is the depth of music, the depth of penetration into music. His element.

... He liked to be told that he was a genius. He was probably really a genius. Only not only in opera, in music, in The Master and Margarita, but simply in everything. he was not like anyone else.

And no one needed him ... Everyone needed him, and the phone rang, and orders were given, and on the day of his jubilee Ernst could say: "I am always there." It was completely sincere.

But he left to die completely unconscious. In complete unconsciousness, he squeezed the hand of his girlfriend, just a fan, who was next to him that day, at the moment when the doctors came for him.

And he was wearing a mask, not realizing anything, just squeezing her hand ... He needed someone's hand. Well, at least someone's ...

All this is scary. This is one of the most terrible exits that have been before my eyes.

After 70, people in our country generally live differently in our country. And they die mostly hard, not like Goethe, surrounded by relatives, glory...".

The entire issue of Andrey Karaulov can be viewed here.