Well, the "BG" I was thinking of was Boris Grebenschikov - who is not only still with us, but still writing and performing, and constantly evolving.  I tried to think of a clip to include - but whatever I posted would immediately negate everything else he's done, since his entire career has been one of continual development and transition.   I guess I have a sneaking preference for the "early stuff", since I heard it first in Leningrad in the 80s, and it's associated with a happy time in my youth

So I chose this clip because it has a translation of the text alongside it - you can see the level at which he writes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZnGOt2kgVI

Zdob are good, I go to their concerts sometimes   I'm afraid I also like Chizh, which is very uncool these days

Thank you, t-p,for some most inviting clips.     The British productions: The Cherry Orchard (early 60's) at the Royal Shakespeare Co, Aldwych Theatre; the National Theatre production of The Three Sisters followed  ten years later.   Both triumphed in the sense that Chekhov had been sidelined since the famous pre-war Komisarjevsky productions at the Queen's Theatre (Shaftesbury Avenue) in 1938.  John Gieldgud and Michael Redgrave paved the way with performances targeted, I'm told, less for theatricality and - due to Komisarjevsky - more for emotional truth in a Stanislavskian vein!   Incidentally, Peggy Ashcroft was also in the company and married Komis - as he was called.

In the early 60s, Ashcroft tackled Ranevsky (she's in the clips) with enormous success.  Young Judi Dench played Anya and, in turn, she had a fair go at Ranevsky, in  later years.   My own favourite in this role was by Lila Kedrova.   She was a Russian/French character actress who made a huge success in the film of Zorba the Greek.

The National Theatre also had a huge success with "Uncle Vanya in the early 70s.   Emotional truth was also supplemented by a layer of irony so that the despair of the subtext understated the dramatic.  This made the death of Tusenbach more painful and the final parting of Vershinin and Masha quite heartrending.    The hysteria in the Russian clip is a good example of what the NT cast were trying to avoid.

   Reiner, I think it was the sheer fraility of human nature which made Chekhov refer to Vanya and The Seagull as comedic.   Mention comedies in the UK and the instant reaction is nudge-nudge, ha ha!   I almost did so, in my last posting, and decided to opt for ironic.   I saw Peter Hall's production of Uncle Vanya, here in York, last Spring.   Lots of spontaneous laughter at the sheer frustration and tension between Vanya and Serebryakov (I played the latter when I was far too young but cottoned-on to his self-centred egoism - this was in the 60s when improvisation was in its infancy and, in rehearsal, we were asked to continue the action after Vanya botches his attack on Serebryakov.  He literally grabbed a vase of flowers and contined attacking me and I veered towards the hysterical.)

I haven't completely read my copy of Dear Writer - Dear Actress - the Love Letters of Anton Chekhov & Olga Nipper for some time and have a hunch that Chekhov's theories are contained therein.  I'll check.

I, too, would walk barefoot across the sands of Arabia to see Josephine Barstow as Ranevsky.  She'd play the aristocrat to perfection and also manage to mine the need for her rough-trade lover in the south of France.   "He's like a millstone but I need him".  You'd know where the monies from the estate would go after the sale and why she was leaving.