Vladimir Andrei Petrov: Autumn City Lyricism
There are composers whose music becomes the official soundtrack of our cities, seasons and memories. As soon as the first yellow leaf falls on Moscow asphalt, this poignant, bright and slightly ironic melody begins to sound in your head all by itself.
Andrei Petrov is the genius who created the musical atmosphere of Eldar Ryazanov’s masterpieces, turning them into the standard of cozy, atmospheric cinema.
Two films that became the music of autumn
1. Beware of the Car (1966): a waltz of foggy streets
This waltz cannot be mistaken for anything else. Detective intrigue and piercing sadness live in it side by side in a remarkable way. Close your eyes and you will at once recall the images: the gray Moscow sky, wet asphalt, leaves flying from under the wheels of a Volga, raised coat collars.
The music whirls with the October wind, turning the chase after Detochkin into a poetic walk through a city frozen on the eve of winter.
2. Office Romance (1977): the aesthetics of autumn warmth
The images of this film are a concentrate of cinematic coziness. Blurred headlight glimmers through the wet window of a bus, a motley carpet of leaves in the park where Novoseltsev has long been waiting, and an endless train of colorful umbrellas on the capital’s streets.
And the orchestral theme “Morning”? To it the city wakes up, kettles come to the boil and morning coffee is brewed. Petrov’s music here is like a warm woolen blanket. It warms you in the middle of pouring rain and teaches gratitude for any “weather” in life.
Melodies of generations
It is amazing how these scores have survived decades. Today even those born in the twenty-first century recognize them from the first three notes. There is not a false note in Andrei Petrov’s city lyricism. It is music of colossal sincerity and visual depth. In it is encoded the code of our shared past, of parental warmth and comfort that does not depend on the era outside the window.
