Though the title above is a transliteration as opposed to the appropriate Cyrillic, it is the name of a traditional Russian folk tune about and made for the triangular stringed instrument known as the balalaika. Translating as "Oh, You Birch Tree," the song was one of many performed at a UW concert hall when the Madison-based Balalaika and Domra Association of America held their annual convention in town in 2005.
Four brief concert clips follow below, including a segment of "Oh, You Birch Tree."
That particular song featured Alex Siniavski on the balalaika and Mikhail Smirnov on the guitar. There are three more short clips from the balalaika-based concert on July 23, 2005. These follow below:
- The first clip features a quartet playing "Csardas," a take on the Hungarian folk dance of Roma origin. This one was arranged by Italian composer Vittorio Monti and features Victor Gorodinsky on the balalaika contrabass and Greg Harbaron the accordion in addition to the first two musicians.
- The second clip features a trio (same as above sans accordion) playing "Daydreams Waltz," a song composed by Vassily Vassilievich Andreev, who is known as the "father" of the modern Russian balalaika.
- The third and final clip captures the full quartet playing the traditional folk song "Sergey Gusarov."
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