CONQUERING EVIL

A descendant of a famous generation of Bakuvian khans and born into the family of Abbasqulu Aga Bakixanov, Azerbaijani People's Artist, professor, holder of the Soxrat order and an Humay prize-winner, the world-renowned Azerbaijani composer Tofiq Bakixanov is the author of 8 symphonies, 5 symphonic mugams, 6 symphonic poems, 25 concertos for various instruments, 26 sonatas, three one-act ballets, three operettas written jointly with the composer Nariman Mammadov and over 100 songs. He comes from a family of musicians. His father - the celebrated tar player and People's Artist of the republic Ahmad Bakixanov - was a good friend of the great Uzeyir Hacibayov. They worked together at the music college and the conservatoire. Both families lived close to one another (museums have now opened in these houses - author's note). Uzeyir bay heard Tofiq playing when he was a child and predicted a bright future for him and this episode in his life is depicted in a canvas by the artist Huseyn Haciyev.

Just before his 85th birthday R+ talked to maestro Tofiq Bakixanov about his early years of study, his work and what he is doing today.

- How did your musical career begin?

- At Uzeyir Hacibayov's recommendation, I studied at a ten-year music school in Tsimberov's class, and then with Professor Amiton at the conservatoire and studied composing with Qara Qarayev. From the age of 12 I was playing solo violin at concerts on the radio, in the philharmonic and at the conservatoire and I continued with my concerto work on the violin at the state philharmonic trio. Then I taught the violin at the Baku Academy of Music and chamber ensemble lessons at the conservatoire. But despite my success in performing and teaching, it was always composing that attracted me. And it was not only the extent of the repertoire of chamber music, the area in which I was most involved, that overwhelmed me but also the impression it made on me. And I was also inspired by the work of my brilliant tutor, Qara Abulfasovich Qarayev.

- How do you work on a new composition? Does the music come after some vivid impression?

- It varies. For example, the idea for the mugam "Humayun" came to me from my daughter, Nigar xanim Bakixanova, an Orientalist scholar, who died before her time after the terrible tragedy of Xocali. My symphony No5 "Nigar" is dedicated to her. I wrote the mugam "Humayun" after hearing my father playing the tar. It is a synthesis of my feelings and thoughts of a personal and nationwide tragedy. Artists have always been occupied by thoughts about death. The "Humayun" was conceived and read as a requiem.

- Your treatment of the symphonic mugam is a continuation of the traditions of Uzeyir Hacibayov, Fikrat Amirov and Niyazi…

- You could place my symphonic mugams "Nava", "Rahab", "Sahnaz" and "Digah" in this category.

- Tell us about your symphonic poem "Always with us". 

- It is dedicated to our national leader Heydar Aliyev. It shows love and admiration for a great individual. In the music poetry and lyricism alternate with drama and eloquence.

- We know that you have travelled very widely in your work…

- Yes, and that includes trips with the students of the chamber ensemble to cities in the CIS, restoring severed links with various republics of the Soviet Union and work-related ties with Iran, Turkey, Northern Cyprus and the Arabic countries. For these trips I included in my repertoire of student concerts works by modern composers of the former Soviet Union and further afield. And when I am abroad I promote professional Azerbaijani music as well as my own. I have also been lucky enough to become a member of the Cultural Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Baku. I have given lectures at the Tehran Sura University of Art and also concerts of my work in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tebriz and Ardabil. I can also remember three concerts from "Turkish" compositions dedicated to the centenary of the Turkish composer Hasan Ferit Alnar and the 86th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. And there is another plus from these working trips - the works of many composers of the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Lithuania have been heard for the first time in Azerbaijan. And then there was a separate concert dedicated to the French composers Debussy, Ravel, Farrenc and Poulenc. I also made several trips with my students to Russia, Central Asia, the Baltics and Georgia where we played not just Azerbaijani music but also the music of other ethnic cultures. Not just my work but my whole life has been dedicated to the idea of the fraternal friendship of peoples.

- One of your books has the title "2,000 Kilometres of Success". What's it all about?

- After the successful VII Inter-national Dance Festival in France, where we showed the ballet "Caspian Ballad", we completed a long trip of 2,000 kilometres from north to south. We travelled by car, taking our sets with us, and we saw the country in close-up and at our leisure. Every day there was a performance and whenever we had a free moment we tried to get to know the towns, the museums and the people better.

- Tell us a bit more about the "Caspian Ballad" if you would…

- This one-act ballet - a ballet-poem or a ballet-novella, if you like - was performed on the stage of the Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1968. It is full of poetry and romance about the glorious oil workers of the Caspian. It is a unique ballet in that it is the only one in the world on the subject of oil. Maestro Qara Qarayev once told us students how the celebrated director Roman Karmen made a film about the oilmen at Neft Daslari. Suddenly, natural gas gushed from one well and the cameramen were able to take some unique pictures. I then got interested in the subject of oil, visited Neft Daslari several times, met oil workers and watched them at work and in their everyday lives. But what impressed me most was how the people fought accidents shoulder to shoulder at times of danger. I tried to convey these mo-ments in my music.

The ballet, which was shown at the VII International Dance Festival in Paris, conquered the French capital and was shown 60 times that season. It was then heard in seven cities of France, Luxemburg and Monaco and also in many cities of the former USSR and was a huge success everywhere. In the ballet "Caspian Ballad" based on Siyavus Mammadzada's libretto, there is no specific theme, no sketches of everyday life or love scenes, but there is the romance of the sea, the heroic spirit of man's toil, wisdom and strength. The main concept is the conquest of the sea by man. There is a sequence of the death of the young hero. The unusual heroes of the piece are Sea, Oil and Fire. Girls in light blue dresses reproduce rolling waves and the swell of the sea and young men the piles of the piers. It's my favourite ballet.

- In many countries your works have made Azerbaijani art famous. The ballet "Caspian Ballad" could be said to be the peak of your work, although two other ballets - "Eastern Poem" and "Good and Evil" - are close behind it… 

- "Eastern Poem" was based on "Persian Themes" and other works by the Great Russian poet, Sergey Yesenin, who visited Baku. And the ballet-parable "Good and Evil" was based on Nizami Gancavi's "Hamsa". It is about the eternal philosophical and vital truth of the struggle between good and evil. It was presented by the young Bakuvian choreographer, Rasid Ahmadov. This one-act ballet is handled in the modern style and the producer himself plays the part of the main hero, Evil. This is the way life is: if Evil exists somewhere, it doesn't mean it has won; on the contrary - all that is evil, rotten and sinister eventually explodes so that all that is good, bright and joyful prospers. The characters are the owner of the oasis, Gultakin, Good and the tree of life, Koksaqiz. There are the scenes "The whirl of the heroes" and "The wilderness". The theme of the vivid power of Good can be heard at the end. Good is victorious. Evil has been vanquished.

- Have you "vanquished Evil" in your life and work?

- I have beaten illness and brought up the sons of a daughter who died before her time, my two remarkable grandsons Nadim and Rifat. I have trained more than one bunch of talented musicians and promoted Azerbai-jani music, including my own, abroad. I have dedicated all my life and work to the intermingling of cultures. And now I'm as fit as a fiddle, preparing for my forthcoming anniversary. The posters and invitations have already gone out, as well as brochures with the programme and a thick book of 700 pages called "The Story of a Composer". Concerts will be held in many theatres in Baku, as well as Naxcivan, Iran and Turkey from 7 to 15 December. Several of my works, including three ballets, will be performed. My birthday is celebrated every five years at state level, and, God willing, this will not be the last. 

- Maestro, your compositions for the flute are a big contribution to the literature of this instrument and the Melodiya company has even produced a CD of your flute compositions played by the celebrated flautist, Merited Master of the Arts of Azerbaijan, Telman Haciyev…

- Telman Haciyev and I have worked together as friends for 50 years. At a concert in Moscow, where he studied, Telman played with such passion that I wanted to write music for him. He is the inspiration for flute compositions and it was to him that I dedicated my first concert for flute and orchestra and I wrote all my subsequent works with him in mind. After all, it was he who showed me the special features of this instrument which led me to seek even more virtuosity in it…

- Is your concerto No 6 for violin and orchestra in the jazz style, dedicated to the memory of the famous American songwriter George Gershwin, an attempt to keep pace with time or a tribute to the memory of the celebrated composer?

- Both. I wrote this work with great enthusiasm and, incidentally, it has now been awarded a Fulrowell Hays prize in the USA. It is beautifully played by that remarkable violinist, merited artist of the republic, Tofa Babayeva.

- You have written three operettas together with Nariman Mammadov: they are "Mammadali goes to the seaside", "One of six" (about the working days of Azerbai-jani collective farmers) and "The girl hurries to a date". Whose words are behind your songs and romances for voice and piano based on? 

- The Azerbaijani poets Suleyman Rustam, Siyavus Mammadzada, Mi-kayil Musfiq, Tofiq Mutalibov, Abbasqulu Aga Bakixanov and others. There is also a romance based on Pushkin's "The Winter Road". The most popular of these are "Song about the Motherland", "Excuse me", "Song about a soldier", "Loving heart" and others.

- There is a tendency towards dance in your music. You're no spring chicken, so what's going on? Some kind of youthful passion, or does this music just come into your head?

- Why not? Yes, I feel young, I'm full of energy, and so dance melodies and rhythms come into my head.