Maya Kristalinskaya – Tenderness
World-famous in Russia, perhaps forgotten or unknown outside. A song with its own Wikipedia pages – Нежность in Russian, Nezhnost in English. It means tenderness, but you may hear it even without knowing.
Film
Known, among other things, for this film scene (starting at 1:30 min), from Три тополя на Плющихе or Three Poplars in Plyushchikha (1967). Definitely watch these three minutes from that film, featuring music by La Kristalinskaya.
Performances
The song, written in 1965 by Александра Пахмутова (Aleksandra Pakhmutova), has been performed many times. Check out versions by Ксения Кондратова (2016), Дмитрий Хворостовский (2006), or Таня Буланова (2003) – though no one sang it with more нежность (tenderness) than the original performer, Майя Кристалинская ( Maya Kristalinskaya, 1932-1985).
Clip Versions
There’s also a lyrics video with translation, a live performance (by Aida Garifullina) also featuring lyrics in two languages, and a karaoke version. There are clips with Marilyn Monroe, with Yuri Gagarin, and a regular video that cannot be embedded.
Empty
Опустела без тебя земля are the first words, meaning: empty (deserted) is the world without you. Perhaps this explains the final words: если можешь, прилетай скорей – if you can, come quickly.
Track and
artist also on Spotify.
Biography (EN).
Kristalinskaya’s Нежность was also sampled, including in this Земля (2014). For more, check out Slow Russian / Tenderness / Нежность (Live Russian, 2018, 4 min).
Most of the music here is also in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of release).
See also
Best Russian Music and
Russian Song Lyrics.
More
Music
Anyone who wants to present Russian music cannot ignore Zemfira. Popular and mainstream – millions of records sold – but also distinctly idiosyncratic. The music is usually accessible (we categorize it under Pop), but the attitude is rock.
Raw Anti-Putin punk from
Nizhny Novgorod /
Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
From the green city of
Zelenograd /
Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by
Mikhail Rodionov (1992).
The alarm blares (Ревёт тревога), the road awaits (ждёт дорога). They are many (Их немало), we are few (нас немного). We are in an unjust world (Мы в несправедливом мире) tin wolves in the shooting range (Жестяные волки в тире).
The word offret is Swedish and means ‘sacrifice’; the band Offret is Russian and makes heavy music. The link between the word and the band: a
1986 film in Swedish by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky.
A band from Saint Petersburg that makes a kind of post-punk/indie-pop. Not for long yet, so not much material yet. However, they already have a few very successful tracks with original music videos. До свиданья, дорогая is the
Russian title for the film
The Goodbye Girl (1977), but it has nothing to do with it.
