page_title: Leonid Kharitonov (singer)
section_title: 1983 video of Along the Peterskaya (Street)
hierarchical_section_title: Leonid Kharitonov (singer) / Critical commentaries on performances after 1972 / 1983 video of Along the Peterskaya (Street)
caption_attribution_description: English: A screenshot of my father's performance of the song "Along the Peterskaya (Street)" (Vdol po Piterskoy), 1983.
context_page_description: Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov was a Russian bass-baritone singer. He was honoured with People's Artist of the RSFSR and Honored Artist of RSFSR. In the West he was noted for his 1965 video of the Song of the Volga Boatmen.
context_section_description: Vdol po Piterskoy (Russian: Вдоль по Питерской) 
  This folk song, about a jolly, tipsy troika-driver indiscreetly courting the ladies, belongs to a tradition in which it was previously popularised by Feodor Chaliapin and Alexei Sergeev who each made the song their own.  Sergeev's version was hilariously rumbustuous but possibly overwhelming at close quarters for the ladies. Kharitonov's inebriate is the huge and clumsy but genial Russian Bear: the symbol of Russia beloved of Leo Tolstoy. The tonality is kept warm and elegant, while the vocal slide from one note to the next — and on one occasion a whole glissando - help to create an illusion of musical drunkenness. This is a musical joke, as previously Georgi Vinogradov had taken the vocal slide from drunks and tuneless club singers, and utilised it to showcase his own disciplined vocal skill and consistent vocal quality as he slid from one register to the next.  Kharitonov, in his prime, still has a consistent vocal quality across the registers at the age of 50 years, and can surprise the audience by taking a technique which had come to represent sobriety, and hand it back to the music-hall toper.
  So this performance demonstrates the artistry behind the charm of a comedic bass solo performance.
caption: Kharitonov singing Along the Peterskaya, 1983
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