"MAESTRO, THE FLOOR IS YOURS"

The first international festival dedicated to the great musician, Mstislav Rostropovich, opened in Baku's Muslum Magomayev State Philharmonia on 11 December. Musicians from Russia, the USA and Azerbaijan took part in the festival. An event on this scale always harbours the question: can beauty or art save the world? You begin to believe that it can when you attend a classical music festival. Because the very fact that an idea from the spiritual and not the material world, such as remembering a great musician, can bring many people together is in itself an example of the power of music. Wise politicians understand this. Heydar Aliyev understood this full well, when in 1999 he invited Mstislav Rostropovich to visit his native Baku. The visit by the great musician was to prove provident for the development of Azerbaijani culture during the difficult stage of political transition. It became a tradition in different areas of Rostropovich's work. As well as displaying musicianship of the highest class, Rostropovich initiated the Shostakovich International Festival, which was held in Baku in 2006 and featured the best musicians and orchestras from around the world. The brochure for this year's festival includes a quotation from Rostropovich at that time: "I am very happy that the festival is being held in my beloved city of Baku." And now a year later, when the maestro himself has left us, his wife, the great singer Galina Vishnevskaya, has continued this tradition of international musical forums in Baku with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

In his native city

The evening began with the Azerbaijani Capriccio performed by the State Symphony Orchestra with People's Artist Rauf Abdullayev as conductor. The pathos of this inspired performance, with its clear national intonations subordinated to symphonic development, symbolized better than anything the import and greatness of the moment. A screen at the back of the stage showed pictures from the great musician's life which corresponded to the music and lent the event a deeper significance - like a whole musical universe where there are no national differences and only art reigns.

"I am happy that the first festival in memory of Rostropovich is taking place in the city where he was born and that he loved so much," the great musician's daughter, Olga Rostropovich, told the audience. In her brief speech she thanked everyone who had helped to organize the event, in particular the chairman of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Mehriban Aliyeva, and of course her mother Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya. The minister of culture and tourism, Abulfaz Qarayev, who spoke next, thanked the guests who had considered it their duty to take part in the festival and hoped that the festival would become a spiritual memorial to Mstislav Rostropovich in Baku.

"Stop the moment"

Maestro Rauf Abdullayev was particularly inspired in his conducting that evening: a sense of style, artistic taste and a delicate perception of the composer's idea could be felt in the performance of the famous waltz from Qara Qarayev's Seven Beauties and Sergey Rachmaninov's Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Murad Adigozelzada's interpretation displayed virtuoso qualities, stamina and knowledge of the traditions of performing Rachmaninov. The Azerbaijani musicians were at their best which is further proof of the inspiration that international festivals can give to professional performers.

In the second half of the evening a film was shown by Aleksandr Sokurov, "Elegy of life. Rostropovich. Vishnevskaya". Shot in 2005 to mark the renowned musical couple's golden wedding, it recounts the main milestones in the lives of each one and the vagaries that fate had laid in store for them. As in any talented work of art, the shots in this film, although describing specific events, gave birth to a whole raft of associations and ideas about the outstanding, purely human qualities that a musician must have. From all Rostropovich's many remarks about music the director wisely chose those where he says that the road to success does not lie only in musical talent but also in a musician's personal qualities. This is what turned Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich into major figures of the 20th century.