Andrey Eshpai: biography and creativity

Biography

Andrei Andreevich Eshpai was born into the family of the famous composer, People's Artist of the USSR Andrei Yakovlevich Eshpai. Andrei Jr.’s mother, Alexandra Mikhailovna, was a pianist.

From early childhood, parents tried to instill in their son a love of art. Looking at little Andrei's successes in music school, his father decided that there was no point in trying hard in this direction, and switched his attention to theater and cinema.

After school, Andrei entered the Moscow State Institute of Culture, the department of theater directing. The talented student was often singled out among his peers by teachers, however, after the first year of study, Andrei applied to another university - the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography for the directing department.

Eshpai's diploma work at VGIK - the film "Zvana", filmed in 1980 - was awarded the prizes "For Best Screenplay", "For Best Director" and "For Best Actor" at the VGIK student festival.

Childhood and family

On May 15, 1925, a boy was born into the family of the Soviet composer - Eshpai Andrei Yakovlevich, whose biography was initially connected with music. His father was a famous composer who collected and arranged national Mari songs, taught at the Moscow Conservatory, and the child constantly heard music in the house since childhood. The boy’s mother, Valentina Nikolaevna Togaeva, also came from a musical family, her uncle was composer Anatoly Togaev. She worked all her life as a teacher of Russian language and literature, and was a great lover and collector of folk songs of different nations. Eshpai Andrey Yakovlevich, whose family was very musical, absorbed the creative spirit with his mother's milk.

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Eshpai Andrei Yakovlevich, whose biography was predetermined from birth, went to study at the seven-year music school named after. Gnesins. His first teacher, Valeria Vladimirovna Listova, knew the future composer from the age of 4, she was able to recognize in him a rare composing talent, into the development of which she invested a lot of effort and soul. He also had the opportunity to study with the three Gnesin sisters, and all the teachers noted little Eshpai’s extraordinary musicality and absolute pitch.

Cinema

Immediately after graduating from the institute, Andrei Eshpai began working as a production director at the Gorky Film Studio.

In 1983, Andrei presented his first independent directorial work - the film “When Bach Played”. It was a story about a young man who could not overcome the inertia of everyday life and passed by true love. The screenwriter of this project was Sergei Soloviev.

In October 1988, the premiere of Andrei Eshpai’s next film, “The Jester,” took place. Two years later he began filming the film “Humiliated and Insulted” based on the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky. The main roles in this film adaptation were played by Nastassya Kinski and Nikita Mikhalkov. The film was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 1996.

The painting “A Blooming Hill Among an Empty Field,” created in 2000, became the first feature film in Russia to be shot on a digital camera and then transferred to film. The film was nominated for the Nika Award of the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts.

Andrei Eshpai's sixteen-episode television feature film "Children of the Arbat" based on the novel of the same name by Anatoly Rybakov was made in 2004 and received the Grand Prix at the Yalta International TV Film Forum "Together". “Children of Arbat” also participated in the “Golden Eagle” and “TEFI” competitions in the “Best Television Series” category.

The film "Ellipsis", presented in 2006, received many prizes and awards - at the International Festival in Locarno, "Nika", "Window to Europe", "Moscow Premiere", "Golden Eagle", "White Elephant" and others.

In 2009, Eshpai’s film “The Event” won a diploma from the Guild of Film Scholars and Film Critics at the 31st Moscow International Film Festival.

At the same time, Andrei Andreevich completed work on the television feature film “Ivan the Terrible,” which was presented on the Rossiya channel. This and many of his films starred his wife Evgenia Simonova, daughter, pianist Maria Eshpai, and another daughter, actress Zoya Kaidanovskaya, who is not the director’s own daughter, but he considers her exactly that.

In 2010, Eshpai presented the mystical drama “Elysium”, in 2013 – one of the episodes of the film “Kuprin”, in 2015 – “Adult Daughters”.

Awards and titles

Medal "For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
Medal "For the Capture of Berlin"
Medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw"
Medal "For Warsaw 1939-1945"
1945 - Order of the Red Star
1960 - Honored Artist of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
1964 - Honored Artist of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
1967 - Order of the Badge of Honor
1969 - Honored Artist of the RSFSR
1971 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor
1973 - Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
1975 - People's Artist of the RSFSR
1976 - USSR State Prize - for the cantata “Lenin is with us” (to the words of V.V. Mayakovsky) and the 2nd concert for piano and orchestra
1981 - People's Artist of the USSR
1982 - Honored Artist of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
1983 - People's Artist of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1983)
1985 - Order of Lenin
1985 - Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree
1986 - Lenin Prize - for a concerto for oboe and orchestra (1982), “Songs of Mountain and Meadow Mari” (1983)
2000 - Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (May 15, 2000) - for his great contribution to the development of Russian musical art.
2008 — Order “For Merit to the Chuvash Republic”
2010 - Order of Friendship (May 21) - for his great contribution to the development of domestic musical art and many years of creative activity
Moscow City Prize 2010 in the field of literature and art (nomination “Musical Art”) (August 16, 2010) - for the creation of symphonic paintings “Dreams” and the second edition of the Sixth (Liturgical) Symphony
Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation 2010 in the field of culture (December 17, 2010) - for the creation of a cycle of musical works for orchestral instruments and a symphony orchestra
The highest Russian public award - the badge of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky "For Labor and the Fatherland"
Honorary Prize of RAO "For contribution to the development of science, culture and art"
Member of the International Music Council at UNESCO (since 1977)
Honorary member of the Society named after. F. Liszt (1979, USA)
Academician of the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts
Honorary President of the Mari El community in Moscow
Honorary Citizen of Yoshkar-Ola
Honorary Citizen of Kozmodemyansk

Personal life

The first wife of Andrei Eshpai was the famous actress Larisa Udovichenko. The fame and demand of the wife played a cruel joke: according to the media, the marriage fell apart due to Andrei’s jealousy. The couple did not have any children together, so they separated without problems. In an interview, Larisa Udovichenko speaks very positively about her ex-husband.

The director met Evgenia Simonova, his second wife, during the filming of the film “When Bach Played.” Eshpai was not at all embarrassed by the fact that the actress already had a daughter from her first marriage to Alexander Kaidanovsky. The two lovers raised little Zoya together, and a couple of years later their daughter Maria was born, and only then the girl’s parents registered their relationship.

Actress Zoya Kaidanovskaya, who is Eshpai’s adopted daughter, is very attached to him and considers him a second father. “For me, Andreevich is not a stepfather, but a second dad,” Zoya shares. “That’s what I called him when I was a child.” The word “stepfather” is as unpleasant to me as “stepmother.”

Composer Andrei Eshpai has died

Andrei Yakovlevich Eshpai belongs to the galaxy of wonderful Russian Soviet composers. He lived a long life - 90 years. And in 2020, we celebrated his anniversary with a series of interesting concerts, welcomed him, congratulated him, realizing that his life and work is the era of Russian music.

Eshpai was a composer for whom double standards did not exist. He wrote magnificent film music, songs that became hits, but at the same time he composed the most serious works in academic genres: 9 symphonies, 2 concertos for piano and orchestra, 4 concertos for violin and many other symphonic works in complex genres. At the same time, both in academic music and in “light” music, he remained himself. His style was always recognizable - in the song “And it’s snowing” based on Yevtushenko’s poetry, and in the music for the film “His Excellency’s Adjutant,” and in the Concerto for clarinet and string orchestra with harp and timpani. This professional honesty was characteristic of Andrei Yakovlevich in everything: both when he was the chairman of the jury of the Tchaikovsky Competition and sharply criticized the bias of some jury members, and when he expressed his opinion about the teaching system in music universities. Probably, his courage and independence were formed in those years when, having graduated from a machine gun school and military translator courses, he fought on the First Belorussian Front and met in Berlin on May 9, 1945.

photo: 1tv.ru

Andrey Yakovlevich Eshpai is the founder of a remarkable creative dynasty. His son Andrei Eshpai Jr. is a wonderful film director. Granddaughter Maria Eshpai is a talented pianist.

Andrei Yakovlevich Eshpai left behind a huge creative legacy, diverse in genres and inexhaustible in the depth of images, the beauty of melodies and the richness of forms.

We contacted the composer's son, film director Andrei Andreevich Eshpai . On the evening of November 7, two Andreys talked on the phone, discussed creative plans and pressing issues (Eshpay Sr. was just recovering from broken arms and legs), the son was going to visit his father on Sunday. But at 6 am Andrei Yakovlevich quietly and peacefully left this world...

“A brilliant composer, my father, has died,” Andrei Andreevich told MK. “He never thought about death... Not so long ago the ballet premiered in Germany. There were two anniversary concerts hosted by Fedoseev. But on Sunday at 6 am... stroke. Yes, he was sick. He broke his arm and leg, but recovered and was already walking. I said the day before, bring me this, that... I had to come to him. And then at night it happened... he was gone. He left without thinking about anything. He did not leave a will, he left his music. Listen to his symphonies and hear what our life is like. In general, the word “death” did not go together with it. He always wore light suits and never thought about death. Despite the fact that on his 90th birthday he did not receive the order that they were going to give him - his father was a participant in the war, and miraculously survived... The order mattered to him. He is the hero of our country, the greatest composer and a wonderful person. But we don’t value our heroes. This is how everything works for us.

photo: vesti.ru

Alexey Shelygin, composer:

— It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Andrei Yakovlevich for Soviet, Russian music and for the entire world musical space. This is a figure of universal scale - in his symphonic works, in ballets and songs. He mastered a huge number of genres. It is difficult to name another such “omnivorous” composer. He also loved jazz music. He himself played the piano brilliantly. He was interested in all styles of modern music.

At the same time, being the heir of the Russian school of composition, in my opinion, he was its last great representative. And what’s amazing: he always wrote fresh and new music. He never stood still in his creative plans. This can teach us a lot, the younger generation of composers. Undoubtedly, he is a respected and beloved patriarch. His influence on the Russian school of composition is enormous. He worked until the last minute... Especially for cinema. She and her son Andrey Eshpai have formed a magnificent creative tandem. For example, his music for the film “Russian Performance” struck me with its absolute modernity. You'd think it was written by a young man. I would also like to say about his songs: many of them were written half a century ago, but they are still alive today and have not lost their relevance - they are performed and quoted.

Directing

The first film that Eshpai directed was called “When Bach Played.” This is a short film that opened the way for its creator to the world of cinema. 5 years after the release of the first film, Andrei Andreevich shot the full-length film “The Jester”. The film turned out to be difficult to understand, but close to the viewer. This work explores the topic of social inequality and psychological deviations. After such a successful start, Andrei Andreevich continued to improve in directing. Soon his biography was replenished with films of various types, which the audience received with delight.

Andrey Eshpai on the set of the film “Ivan the Terrible”

Next came the film “The Humiliated and Insulted,” a film based on the novel of the same name by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The film was criticized for some time, but the general aspects were received positively, especially since Nikita Mikhalkov participated in the film. Six years later, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

“A Blooming Hill Among an Empty Field” is the director’s next work. The film was shot using new technologies of the time. The film was first shot on a digital camera and later transferred to film. For its interesting course and development of cinema, the film received the Nika Award, a prestigious award in Russian cinema.

Andrey Eshpai on the set of the series “Adult Daughters”

The director manages complex images and social interactions with ease and ease. The television series “Children of the Arbat” was so beloved by the viewer that many suggested filming a sequel based on their own scripts.

In the 2000s, Andrei Andreevich Eshpai taught directing in his own workshop at VGIK, where he trained many talented followers. Since 2010, master classes at the Film School have been added to the director’s work. The director perfectly combines filming new films with interesting lectures for the younger generation.

In 2010, the mystical drama “Elysium” appeared. The film won the Kinoshock film festival in the “Best Cinematography” category.

Andrey Eshpai on the set

The audience really liked the plot of the film, because the mysterious hoax is associated with the name of Nikolai Gumilyov, as well as Maximilian Voloshin, great Russian poets. According to the myth, because of the non-existent poetess Cherubina de Gabriac, who was invented by Voloshin, a duel took place between the poets, since Gumilyov fell in love with a fictional character and considered himself deceived.

The director himself said in an interview that the film did not specifically examine the fate of the heroes, but simply made an attempt to convey the spirit of the times. According to the director, this time is associated with a certain marginal state, colossal changes in society, because during the First World War, poets tried to create masterpieces, creations that in the future would become a symbol of the era, while at the same time being at the limit of their existence.

Andrey Eshpai

Among the director’s other films, which were positively assessed by Russian critics, are “Children of the Arbat” and “Ellipsis”. These films received many prizes and awards at different times.