NOT FOR GLORY

A composer sent by God - these are the words that come to mind when you first hear tracks by Elza Ibrahimova. The associations brought by the first sounds of her music can only be described as divine intervention: the amazing feeling of belonging to your land and home country, light joy and oppressive sadness interwoven like oriental designs and shrill as love itself in every one of her compositions. The music that inexplicably comes from the depths of this woman's soul and grows into every listener is truly national. It is a real gift to us all and the brightest embodiment of the riches of Azerbaijan.

Many of us grew up on Elza's songs, perhaps without even knowing it. After all, the composer most often remains behind the scenes, while the grateful listener remembers, alas, only the performer. Elza's songs were performed by Rasid Behbudov and Sovkat Alakbarova, and today we continue to hear them from Flora Karimova and Ilham Quliyev and in recordings by Akif Islamzada ... Bila-Bila, Geca Bulaq Basinda, Bilmazdim, Qurban Verardim, Ey, Vatan and many others - all these songs are based on Elza Ibrahimova's music. The composer herself does not regard this as an injustice and, on the contrary, she is happy that her songs are mistaken for folklore by many. After all, Elza values her talent for its own sake. But one must know and remember that she wrote the music which appeals to anyone who has ever set foot in the land of Azerbaijan. We have decided to introduce our readers to this amazing woman. Elza herself could not meet us, so our R+ correspondent talked to her brother and permanent manager, Cingiz Ibrahimov.

- Elza showed her talent at an early age, but since I was born much later, I remember my sister from about 11 to 12 years of age when she constantly played the piano. For me it was normal to witness the birth of a piece of music. Sometimes, we sat and talked, and suddenly Elza would start to write a piece of music literally on a napkin, says Cingiz.

She can be inspired by anything - a phrase, her impression of an event, poetry; the breeze outside the window and nature. Although a composer, like any other creative person, needs silence to be able to concentrate, Elza has thought little about comfort throughout her life. We lived together in childhood at our father's house on Chapayev Street (now Tabriz Street), and the noise from the yard was a permanent "soundtrack" for our daily lives. Living conditions were not comfortable in the sense that many people lived in quite a small apartment. But Elza, as I remember, always played or wrote. No one and nothing could stop her when she heard the music inside.

- Do you think that Elza's genes played a role in her talent or she is a person of natural gifts?

- Our parents were railway workers, though the love of music in our family was handed down from generation to generation. In Elza, it emerged very early, and wishing to develop it, our parents sent Elza to music school. Then my sister went to the Asaf Zeynalli music college, and after that, to the Azerbaijan State Conservatory. She was very lucky with the teachers: her first teacher was Covdat Haciyev and a year later Qara Qarayev. I am proud to note that when Elza was a student, her talent was highly appreciated not only by these two remarkable composers, but also by Tikhon Khrennikov, Georgiy Sviridov, Otar Taktakishvili and Arif Malikov. They all talked about the uniqueness of Elza's gift.

It is very important that from the outset, Elza wrote serious works with an emphasis on chamber music. When she and her piano teacher, Farida Quliyeva, performed her "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, Qara Qarayev shook her hand and advised her not to rest on her laurels. In turn, Maestro Niyazi also noted the complexity of the texture of her piece.

Of course, all these words imprinted themselves in my sister's mind and gave her a huge incentive and self-confidence. In those years, Elza was experiencing personal problems, and as she had a very strong character since early childhood, she stoically endured all the emotional suffering. She completely retreated into work, and upon completion of her education, she was sent to Dagestan, which has now awarded her the title of national artist. Elza worked in Dagestan for just a year. After she came back, she wrote her first song Jalan ha dejil based on lyrics by the national poet Mammad Rahim. It was first performed by Sovkat Alakbarova on national radio on 19 April 1969 and immediately brought Elza the love of her fans.

- They say that Rasid Behbudov expressed interest in Elza's work?

- Exactly. He himself called her after a concert where Elza's works were performed and wondered what she was working on. Elza was, of course, taken aback, because everyone bowed to Rasid Behbudov's talent, and she was no exception. At that moment, she had just finished work on the song Ey Vatan and decided to offer it to her idol. It was with this song that her collaboration with Rasid Behbudov began. Moreover, it is no secret to anybody that the song became a hallmark of Azerbaijan worldwide. And it was to the accompaniment of this song that Rasid Behbudov was interred.

In addition, Elza wrote over a hundred songs to the words of Azerbaijani poets and dozens in Lezgin. She also managed to write music for poems by Russian poets. We can say without exaggeration that her works would be enough for dozens of composers.

- Did Elza continue to compose instrumental music?

- She did and she still does, because she can't live without it. It is literally the air she breathes. During her career, Elza wrote a series of preludes and variations for the piano, a sonatina for the piano and a scherzo for the violin and the piano, a one-part quartet for two violins, a piano trio in four parts, a symphonic poem, an oratorio, vocal, instrumental and chamber works and music for various plays. But some of Elza's works have yet to see the light of day.

- You are talking about Elza's opera The Burning Cradles?

- The Burning Cradles is a work written through much suffering in all senses of the word. This lyrical and patriotic work is devoted to the Karabakh tragedy. It was commissioned 20 years ago and, finally, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture approved it for staging, but things haven't moved forward an inch. The author of the libretto for The Burning Cradles, poet and playwright, Ramiz Heydar, noted at Elza's creative evening: "Elza Ibrahimova is the first person after Uzeyir Hacibayov to have written an opera based on mugam." Now that on the initiative of Mehriban Aliyeva, national significance is attached to the development of mugam in our country and its promotion throughout the world, The Burning Cradles would be a perfect embodiment of patriotism. Elza is an amazingly proud person, but at the same time, she has a strikingly open heart and soul. Everyone knows that to this day, Elza gives her songs to performers, and she gives them from the heart. She is different and has her own principles against which she will never act for anything. For her, the greatest happiness is that her songs are aired rather than fame or money. And she is a person of Soviet training, and at the time, songs were paid for not by performers, but by the Ministry of Culture. Elza thinks it's blasphemy to set a price for her works based on "the fair market value", because music is not a commodity, but an entirely different substance, it is part of the soul.

But opera is completely different. Do you know many women composers who write today? They can be counted on the fingers of one hand! And there are even fewer women who write serious chamber works. The birth of this opera is important more than ever today. This work should be given a second life.