Azerbaijani music sounds in Budapest

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani music was sounded in Budapest within the musical program "Azerbaijan's musical gift to the world", Azernews reports.

Initiated by a young pianist, and laureate of international competitions Ayan Mammadli, the project aims at promoting Azerbaijani music worldwide.

The presentation of the project took place at the House of Azerbaijan in Budapest with the support of the State Committee for Work with Diaspora.

In her speech, Ayan Mammadli highlighted the work done to preserve and promote the national cultural heritage.

She underlined that the state pays special attention to music and art and they all serve the development of the Azerbaijani culture and its promotion worldwide.

Within the musical program, the audience was presented with musical pieces by Azerbaijan's genius composers Fikrat Amirov and Gara Garayev. The music pieces delighted the attendees.

Azerbaijan's eminent composer Fikrat Amirov is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in Azerbaijani history.

The composer left a lasting impact on national music, creating a new genre called symphonic mugham based on classical folk pieces.

In 2022, Fikrat Amirov would have been celebrating his 100th anniversary.

The founder of the symphonic mugham genre brilliantly synthesized folk music and mugham traditions with modern musical techniques.

The composer wrote the first Azerbaijani lyrical-psychological opera on a contemporary theme.

He is the author of numerous operas, ballets, symphonies, symphonic poems, symphonic mugham, suites, capriccio, piano concertos, sonatas, musical comedies, and songs, love songs, piano pieces, music for dramatic productions, and movies.

Gara Garayev's music is performed all over the world. The memory of the great composer will always live in the hearts of the Azerbaijani people.

In 1938, Garayev composed his first piece of music, a cantata "The Song of the Heart" to the poem by Rasul Rza. It was performed in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in the same year. He was only 20 years old at the time.

In 1945, both he and Jovdat Hajiyev wrote the "Motherland" opera, for which they were awarded a prestigious Stalin Prize.

At the age of 30, Garayev was again awarded this prize for his symphonic poem "Leyli and Majnun", based on the same-titled famous work by Nizami Ganjavi.

In 1952, under the direction of the choreographer P. A. Gusev, Garayev's "Seven Beauties" ballet was staged at the Azerbaijani Theater of Opera and Ballet. Based on Nizami Ganjavi's famous poem, "Seven Beauties", it became the first Azerbaijani ballet and opened a new chapter in the history of classical music in Azerbaijan.

His ballet "Path of Thunder", staged in 1958, was dedicated to racial conflicts in South Africa. In the same year, he wrote the music score for the documentary film "A Story About the Oil Workers of the Caspian Sea", directed by Roman Karmen and set at the Oil Rocks.