SOUL ON THE PIANO KEYBOARD

He is often mistaken for an Italian.  And he really does look like one:  dark-haired, with gleaming dark, almost black eyes, irrepressible temperament, continuous gesticulation and amazing buoyancy.  He talks only about music:  any situation in life is transformed, one way or another, into a series of divine sounds for 25-year-old Bakuvian Emin Zeynalov.  This is precisely his attitude towards classical music.

"Music is soul; it is something sacred...  It is like a lie detector!  Music is the only thing I would want to dedicate my whole being to, without reservation...  Forever!"

As luck would have it, he was already 9 years old when he saw a grand piano for the first time.  The black matt surface of the instrument mesmerized him!  The boy, who had gone to a music school with his older sister, could not tear himself away from the instrument.  And apparently, that love at first sight was so evident that he, a 9-year-old boy, was accepted into Music School No 23 against all the rules.  After that, there was little time for boyish fun in the yard, because music eventually took all of it.  Or to be precise, his love of music did.  No one ever forced him to study music.  Emin would spend hours playing the piano, for example, playing the note C to achieve purity of sound.

"My family, and neighbours too, were simply happy when a moment of 'silence' would arrive and I would not start playing for some reason."

But there were not too many such moments.  The instrument attracted him like a magnet.  A bond appeared between the boy and the piano.  There was something almost mystical about it, but Emin thinks to this day that the grand piano is a living being, with a soul.

"The grand piano is the art of sound, not the art of tapping!"

Trust me, there is no vanity in this, or anything artificial or ostentatious.  But there is the flight of a soul and a joyous attachment to something that gives him, as a performing pianist, an ineffable unity with the world of divine feeling.  And only classical music can stir this in a man.  However, the marvels that occurred between him and his instrument did not come from nothing.  Emin believes that there is some predestination in everything and that he himself is just a small creation of the Almighty, who gave the boy the happiness of meeting wonderful teachers.  They were the ones to guide him along the path of understanding music, disclosing to him, stage-by-stage, the "secrets" of the unity of the instrument and the player.

"God gave me the happiness of meeting my teachers.  Every one of them gave me something very valuable and indispensible in learning the ABCs of the performing skills.  I was lucky - they were all great people and great specialists."

And then he started to list by name everyone (mind you, everyone!) who had shared their knowledge and skills with him.  Believe me, if I listed them all here, their names alone would occupy a quarter of a newspaper page! I hope that his pedagogues will not be offended if I mention only the names of Dina Zakiyevna Zakiyeva, who taught Emin to "think differently," and Musical Academy Professor Rafiq Quliyev, who saw something in the young student that made it possible to accept him into the university, despite the fact that applicant Zeynalov was only 16 years old.

"I graduated from Music School No 23 at 16 and was admitted to the Conservatory with the highest grades in the admission exam.  I am proud that I can call myself Rafiq Quliyev's disciple today!"

The young man received his bachelor's degree but, although he had an honours diploma, he did not feel he was sufficiently accomplished as a pianist and decided to improve his performing art.  And it so happened that Murad Adigozalzada was the man who inspired Emin to go to Moscow.  He would probably not have ventured to do this himself, but...  Rafiq Quliyev also advised him to go.  He phoned Eliso Virsaladze and asked her to audition his student.  So Emin went to Moscow to join Eliso Virsaladze's class.  A People's Artist of the RSFSR, professor of the Munich Conservatory, performing genius and brilliant teacher, she has been Emin Zeynalov's teacher for six years now and fate again bestowed on the young performer the luck to do his postgraduate studies with an excellent master.

"Eliso Virsaladze gave me faith and a feeling of freedom when I work on musical pieces.  It is an incredible happiness for me to be her student.  And it is not easy to join her class!  But if you are lucky enough to get in, it means that you are really worth something.  The main thing is to work, work, work..."

And this means playing for most of the day, being a captive of the piece on which you work for 24 hours a day, striving to achieve that unity of the soul, mind and fingers.

"The grand piano is an imitation of a whole orchestra.  The string of the grand piano, just like the string of a violin, can produce, as it vibrates, a longer and more profound sound.  This is what Eliso teaches me.  Mankind has created so much wonderful music over many centuries!  It must be preserved for future generations."

Emin can talk non-stop about music.  And it is neither boring nor incomprehensible.  As a true lover of his art, he is delighted to convey his understanding of the need for classical music as an example of supremely harmonious beauty embodying the spirit and soul of many generations.

-Tell me, Emin, what is important for a musician?

-I could say many things here.  I will highlight one of them.  It is important to communicate with your audience through your music.

-Do you like the stage?

-Yes, I like it very much.  But I have never thought about why I like it.  It is always a great pleasure to play for an audience.

Emin often performs on stage.  Perhaps not so often as he would like.  He took part in the projects "Eliso Virsaladze and Her Students" and "32 Sonatas by Beethoven".

-I am very grateful to Leyla xanim Aliyeva, Niqar Axundova and Polad Bul-Bul Oglu.  Thinking about their young compatriots who study in Moscow, they often invite me to the Azerbaijani embassy, where I take part in all the cultural events with great pleasure.

In 2008, Emin took part in the 54th International Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona.  In November 2009, he participated in the San Nicola di Bari IV International Piano Competition.  Bari is a port city in the region of Apulia in Italy.  St Nicholas the Wonderworker is the patron saint of the city.  In the summer, Bari becomes the musical centre of Italy.  An annual festival of medieval and baroque music is organized there.  And in the autumn, the city hosts the St Nicholas competition.  Bari is a city of pilgrims, tourists and true connoisseurs of the performing arts.  The streets are always crowded.  People come to the city from different countries: both those who perform music and those who prefer and love to listen to it.  There were 25 participants in the San Nicola contest.  They arrived from other parts of Italy, Canada, Japan, Russia, Israel, Germany, Azerbaijan and other countries.  No winner was announced.  Second place went to the Russian pianist Eduard Kunts.  And third place was given to performers from Japan and Azerbaijan.  For four days, our compatriot Emin Zeynalov performed music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and "Evanescence" by Arif Malikov.

-I wanted very much to familiarize the foreign audience with the beauty of Azerbaijani music.  It is so important today for our country, very small on the huge map of the world, to be known to people from other countries.  This is why I was so pleased with the audience's applause.

Three rounds were held in one of the conservatory's halls and the fourth was hosted by the Basilica, where relics of St Nicholas are kept.  In the fourth round, Emin's performance was accompanied by the Bari Symphonic Orchestra and conductor Giuseppe La Malfa.  So the contest, which was held from 23-28 November, ended with victory for our young compatriot whom many people in Bari mistook for an Italian.  But when the local newspapers published photographs of the winners, Emin Zeynalov's name was no longer associated with Italy.  And the mention of Azerbaijan on Italian TV was particularly meaningful for Emin.

-Azerbaijan is a small country.  But its name sounds as good as the names of other countries!  You cannot even imagine what you feel when your name is mentioned with the name of your country!  It is such an incentive!

He told me what he felt when he performed music over the relics of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, and there was happiness in his voice and in his eyes.  No, he does not relish his victory.  It is important for him to describe the whole gamut of feelings which flooded over him then.

-I felt for the first time that music had come close to me!  It was something incredible!  Every touch of a key - every note - suddenly grew into a huge bell of sound!  It had volume, density, colour and...  There was also something else, very important, for which I cannot find a word!

I suddenly felt a great empathy with the boy.  There was something touching and open and na?ve in him.  And this seemed to connect him with those people who, with great fervour, burned up their lives in the flames of patriotic unity.  I wanted to protect him somehow.  After all, in our pragmatic age these qualities are not so highly valued.  He is a born musician, from an ordinary family in Baku, in which people increase the amount of good by doing good deeds, not by worshipping the golden calf.  And they support their son as much as possible in our economically difficult times.  They support his infatuation with music, his permanent drive to better himself, his trips to competitions and festivals - which the family cannot afford.  But he looks to the future with optimism and believes that, with God's help, all will be well.  And he wants only one thing - to never part with music.

-Please tell me, with your immense fondness for music, do you still have time for your friends?

-Yes, we communicate online.

-Oh, but that cannot replace actual socialization, real contact...

-Alas!  But that is the way it is for now.

-Are you not afraid that you will not have friends and that you will be alone?

-Everything is possible.  But I have my piano, my music and, therefore, I will never be alone.  Music is so powerful, so mighty!  It can cure any disease!  I mean it!

-And you are willing to condemn yourself to poverty, which sometimes happens to even great artists?

-Making money from music is a sacrilege.  A long time ago I told my girlfriend that I would like to play music to the world for free.  It seems to me that when we start to measure sacred things in material units, in money for example, we make a substitution:  the divine part is lost and it is replaced by something altogether different, more earthly.

-Then why do you need glory, if not for prosperity?

-I have not mentioned fame yet.  And besides, fame is something that brings great responsibilities.  I think so, at least.  Think, what is glory?  Fame?  Yes, but it is also responsibility.  You have to keep it once you have won it.  And of course, it can be seen as an incentive to better yourself all the time, because glory does not belong to you alone.  First and foremost, you represent yourself at any competition.  And it means that you represent your teachers, your school, right?  So that is commitment.  The prestige of your country is at stake.  So glory is a great responsibility.  And music is a very important diplomat, speaking all the languages of the world.

-Where do you like to be most - in Baku or in Moscow?

-In Baku, I work as I relax.  The pace of life here is slow and slumbering.  Moscow has dynamism, drive, a crazy pace!  And I like that very much.  I like that pace very much.  I keeps me from relaxing, it forces me to stay in shape.  This is why in Moscow I work all the time and, strange though this might sound, work also gives me a feeling of relaxation.  Of peace of mind.

-Are you happy?

-Oh yes!  I am happy that I exist and that I have this day.  And I owe all this to God, my parents and all my teachers who so generously shared their knowledge and skill with me.  And particularly to Eliso Virsaladze.  Thanks to them, I have found my path through life.  This is happiness.  This is why I wish this to everyone:  to find their path in life, which will become happiness.

We talked for a long time - about the music, the importance of opening your heart to it, about classical music and the past centuries as eternal and sent to us from above as a diving revelation of the soul, about modern interpretations of classic music, performance techniques and performers.  And the longer we talked, the clearer it was to me that this young man, Emin Zeynalov, was ready to carry the name of his country on the keyboard of his piano, across the countries and continents as others bear their own name and surname, identifying their association with their kin.  If, that is, they remember and honour their roots.  He remembers them.  And he will remember them forever.  And may God help him on his difficult journey...