NATIONAL MUSIC DAY

From 18 to 30 September, Baku hosted the Third Uzeyir Hacibayli International Music Festival with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the state independence of Azerbaijan. Musicians from the Netherlands, Austria, South Korea, Germany, Russia, Hungary and elsewhere took part in the festival.

Speaking at the opening of the festival, Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Qarayev said that God sent Uzeyir Hacibayli to the people of Azerbaijan as a precious gift. The minister described the legacy of the great composer as a priceless treasure not only for his own people, but for all mankind. Although the years have passed, people are still interested in Uzeyir bay and still love him across the world, while his works know no borders. They are produced in the world's well-known theatres, screened and performed by famous singers. The minister noted that under Heydar Aliyev, special attention was paid to the study of Uzeyir Hacibayli's heritage and the staging and screening of his works. It was Heydar Aliyev who set the tradition of marking the great composer's birthday with popular celebrations. According to a decree issued by the national leader in 1995 - ahead of the 110th anniversary of the great composer - Azerbaijan marks 18 September as National Music Day every year.

At the opening of the festival, the Buta chamber choir under the direction of Elnara Karimova performed excerpts from the works of famous Azerbaijani and foreign composers. Accompanied by the Buta chamber choir, People's Artist Alim Qasimov and Honoured Artist Farqana Qasimova performed an excerpt from Uzeyir Hacibayli's opera Leyli and Majnun arranged by renowned British music expert Jonathan Rathbone. On the occasion of the 126th anniversary of the birth of the great composer and National Music Day, a soiree was held at Uzeyir Hacibayli's house museum. Speaking at the soiree, the museum's director, Honoured Artist Sardar Faracov, spoke about the considerable public attention towards the composer's legacy and his immortal works. According to Faracov, Uzeyir Hacibayli is an outstanding person who left a deep mark in the history, culture and national identity of our people.

During the festival, the Composers' Union held a conference dedicated to the founder of Azerbaijani professional music, Uzeyir Hacibayli. The Azerbaijani Museum of Musical Culture hosted Uzeyir Hacibayli's Music Day. There was also an exhibition of valuable archival material about his student years in St Petersburg and a presentation of Azerbaijani folklore CDs, donated to the museum by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

One of the important events that took place during the festival was the unveiling by President Ilham Aliyev of a monument to remarkable Azerbaijani composer Fikrat Amirov on the street that bears his name. The president described Fikrat Amirov as the creator of the symphonic mugam genre, which is now included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The festival programme also included three concerts that brought together a lot of fans of classical music. These were concerts by the Dutch duo Bilitis and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. The world famous Vienna Chamber Orchestra was visiting our country for the first time. For their first performance in our city, the Vienna orchestra chose works that had never been heard in Baku - Transfigured Night by Schoenberg, a Divertimento by Mozart and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in D-Minor. The winner of the last International Tchaikovsky Competition, violinist Jehye Lee (South Korea), performed in the Baku premiere of this work. 

The programme of the second concert by the Vienna orchestra included the works of Azerbaijani composers - Uzeyir Hacibayli, Fikrat Amirov and A. Alizada. The concert ended with another novelty: for the first time in our country, Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (Lodron) was performed by the famous pianists and Honoured Artists of Azerbaijan, Yegana Axundova and Murad Huseynov.

One of the most memorable events of the festival was the performance of Polad Bulbuloglu's ballet Love and Death on the stage of the Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre by the troupe of the Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Love and Death was first staged in Baku in 2005. The choreographer and director of the play was a professor at the Vienna Ballet School, Vekil Usmanov, while the art director was People's Artist of Azerbaijan Rafis Ismayilov. The ballet Love and Death raises eternal questions of life and is a story about life and death, love and betrayal. Last year, Bulbuloglu's ballet Love and Death was staged in Yekaterinburg on the initiative of the talented Russian choreographer Nadezhda Malygina. The premiere was an overwhelming success. Nadezhda Malygina combined various styles and choreography: Azerbaijani folk dances, classical and modern music. And this year, the ballet troupe of the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre staged the production of Love and Death at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and in the Turkish capital Ankara.

The next significant event at the international music festival was the presentation of the book Muslim Magomayev - a Bibliography from the series Outstanding Azerbaijanis, which was held at the Axundzada Azerbaijani National Library. On 20 and 21 September, the Azerbaijani State Philharmonic Hall hosted concerts by the world-famous Vienna State Chamber Orchestra conducted by the laureate of international competitions and conductor of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Ayyub Quliyev. The festival ended at the Philharmonic Hall on 30 September with a concert by the Uzeyir Hacibayli Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rauf Abdullayev.

The maestro, whose birthday is celebrated as Music Day in Azerbaijan, was also remembered abroad. As part of a series of concerts by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, a soiree of classical music was held at the residence of the Azerbaijani consul general. The pianist Timothy Andres, clarinettist Derek Bermel and the head of the orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane, performed their own songs and selected works by Mozart, Brahms and Schumann. To highlight that the evening coincided with the birthday of Uzeyir Hacibayli, the musicians presented an original instrumental version of the piece Sansiz.