playing "Song of the Volga Boatmen"
Near the end of the violinist's improvisation in my post "Russian Improvisation" Burbeck manages to gauge his direction, and plays the scale (I think it is chromatic) downwards, exactly at the same pace as the violinist, and ending exactly at the same time, to finish off the piece. This is not improvisation, on Burbeck's part, this is telepathy. Actually, it is simply the instincts of a superior musician. The moment is around the 3 minutes 18 seconds point (in the above video).
Brubeck responds to a request for "Moscow Nights" from an audience member but plays "Song of the Volga Boatmen" instead, which the Russian audience nonetheless loves, which is what led the young violinist to stand and play with Brubeck.
Below are examples of "Song of the Volga Boatmen":
- Sung by Leonid Kharitonov and the Russian Red Army Choir:
- Paul Robeson sings it like a spiritual:
- Glenn Miller gives it that eternal American optimism:
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Below are examples of "Moscow Nights":
Here is Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing "Moscow Nights":
- Here is a more popular, more nostalgic Russian version. I can't find the name of the singer:
- The Red Army performed it in Paris in 1958 in the film "Not Everybody's Lucky Enough to Have Communist Parents":