IGOR MIZRAKH. A REVIEW IN PATCHWORK STYLE

In the hearts of vulgar people live the small towns and hamlets where they were born. Mizrakh’s singing is metropolitan and thoroughbred, like a sip of brut. It rhymes with ebony and ivory, full moon, and white gold.

I wish I could watch him rehearse. However, I don’t think he’s rehearsing. Mizrakh Igor is like a person whose life never gave time to prepare, saying - just do it if you can. Here and now…

Stanislavsky’s system is brilliant, but I don’t think Mizrakh Igor follows Stanislavsky. He’s off the system, like the starry sky and snowfall. He speaks of himself, but everyone thinks Mizrakh somehow learned their deepest secret.

Sometimes he seems to sponsor and organize galas to get lost among other people’s talent. But he can’t get lost. Some artists sing brightly, some are uncertain, some are provocative ... But none of them sing as Igor Mizrakh sings. Noone can fake his manner, just as no one can pretend to be a tightrope walker.

Mizrakh Igor spends money on a perfect arrangement, not on-stage costumes. He doesn’t need to pretend to be someone to be himself. He doesn’t need to be loud to be heard, to be different, to become popular.

I know two people who made fun of his video records. After attending a live concert, both were silent and brooding and deep in their thoughts.

 His sexuality, which lives in-depth, is manifested in the duets he sings with women. Unmistakable slows and splashes, pauses that are as accurate as a sniper shot. Look at the faces of his stage lady partners...

The restrained coolness of a life-tested man is both an image, a style, and an internal ideology. Those who try to fake it look like clowns. The few in whom it is natural are subtly similar to Mizrakh.

Elite cocktail parties fall silent when Mizrakh starts singing. I’ve never heard him say: “Silence, please.” Silence is born by itself, as soon as the first sound of the song appears, and conjures long, like an eternity, seconds when the last one falls silent.

I watched an American girl who listened to Mizrakh’s song. She never once asked her friends: “What is he singing about?” Her only phrase I heard was: “- Who is this guy?”

In the Ukrainian language, there is no word, and in the Ukrainian culture, there is no concept of “gentleman”. But it fits Mizrakh as a glove. A calm dignity put on resilient strength, he’s a gentleman in every word and gesture.

Modern studios (and not very modern, too) can turn an almshouse choir into a symphony orchestra, and a street alcoholic into Pavarotti. Therefore, Mizrakh releases an album “without digital processing of voice and sound”.

No one cares what books Igor Mizrakh reads, what cars he drives, and if he loves Martini. When you’re at his concert, your heart asks for only one more song, and one more song, and one more …

The audience of his fans is huge. The halls where Mizrakh performs are small and cozy, like the rooms of our youth. A trusting miracle doesn’t live on the football field.

Sometimes it seems he could just be silent. The audience would still be numb. Hypnosis and radiation are silent in the same way.

If the owner of two media outlets doesn’t promote his videos, he knows something about life. Mizrakh, of course, will never say what he knows, but he will sing of it. No one can put it into words, but everyone will understand.

If songs are a hobby of the politician Mizrakh, then Tolstoy was an artillery officer, and Russo is great in that he rewrote notes.

There is always something elusive from the theater in Mizrakh’s posters. Because each of his songs is a performance, learned by heart and each time unique.

A pop star can wear an expensive lawyer suit. Courage can afford to be defenseless, and passion and restraint get together well. Don’t try to copy Igor Mizrakh, for not to seem ridiculous and funny. To be a Kingsman, you must be born a Kingsman.

Often, after listening to Igor Mizrakh’s song, you think it is the best of all that he sang. Then you remember thinking the same thing about a completely different song at his other concert. Is the new witchcraft always stronger than the old? Does your heart like to taste a new secret? Both are true ...

The talent is mysterious, as the tides on a full moon! It is as inexplicable as the quantum paradox and the letters of the Holy Language! Its secrets cannot be spied on or unraveled!

Well, yes ... At least I tried...