LAND OF FESTIVALS

Samarqand, Termez, Kokand, Shahrisabs... Over the years, Uzbekistan has turned into a country of festivals. Foreigners call this Central Asian country the Land of Festivals.

The program of the 12th Sharq Taronalari international music festival (Oriental Melodies) promised a very interesting five-day stay in Uzbekistan full of positive emotions.

The festival has been held since 1997 under the auspices of UNESCO. Every two years, a large open-air event unfolds in front of the ancient Registan architectural ensemble in the central square of Samarqand. Indeed it is the best scenery for a real oriental fairy tale.

Twenty-two years ago music bands and performers from 31 countries took part in the first international festival Sharq Taronalari. Since then, the geography of the participants has grown almost three times. This year, more than 340 guests from 75 countries of the world gathered in ancient Samarqand to pay tribute to the musical traditions of the East.

The festival was attended by a truly impressive team of high-ranking guests, including UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergey Lebedev, ministers, MPs and diplomats from different countries. President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev personally welcomed the guests.

“Thanks to our festival, Samarqand attracts people from all over the world not only for its beautiful and ancient architectural monuments, amazing atmosphere of the legendary city, but also for the enchanting oriental melodies that sound,” Mr.  Mirziyoyev said.

But the most important thing, according to S. Mirziyoyev, is that this event has become a platform for dialogue between different cultures and civilizations, countries and peoples.

According to the president, "each artist on the stage on the majestic Registan Square, praises the high ideals of humanism that unite people regardless of their nationality, language and religion." Mr. Mirziyoyev also addressed one of the most relevant issues on the world’s musical agenda. “We can see an active debate about generative music and artificial intelligence. It is assumed that in the future music will be created without humans, only by technology. But we all understand that even the most advanced technical tools cannot replace human breathing, his emotional excitement, the beauty of a living voice, real art, ” President of Uzbekistan said. He actually preceded the discussions later held as part of the festival at the international scientific conference Prospects for development of traditional musical art of the peoples of the East.

By the way, the festival almost coincided in date with the conference held in Samarqand on the preservation of cultural heritage supported by UNESCO. Similar events have been held in Uzbekistan for years. But since it was the first visit of the UNESCO Director General to Uzbekistan, she, apparently, was fascinated by the country.

“Samarqand is a symbol of the power of once a great state of Amir Temur. The Registan square reflects the period of heyday under the reign of Mirzo Ulughbek. This heritage has attracted scientists, artisans, and artists for centuries. The development of musical art as a universal language of intercultural dialogue is one of the objectives of UNESCO. Our organization seeks to develop full-scale cooperation with Uzbekistan,” Audrey Azoulay at the opening of Sharq Taronalari.

Indeed, music knows no boundaries. We evidenced this again when we saw tremendous interest of the audience in the Azerbaijani mugham. This time Azerbaijan was represented by the winner of international mugham contests Paris Gasimov. He was accompanied by the honoured artists of Azerbaijan, the brothers Malik and Elshan Mansurovs and Ramin Abdullayev.

The Azerbaijani quartet has been the favourite band of guests and members of the international jury from the very beginning of the festival. Many people approached us when they saw the flag of Azerbaijan in our hands and asked about the participants, expressed support to our competitors. We felt proud when musicologists from different countries sitting next to us were skimming through the program of the festival trying to find out the exact time of the performance of Azerbaijani musicians. Although Parviz's performance was scheduled to be the second to last, the fans of real art waited for more than four hours. But it was worth the wait.

The twenty-minute performance of the Azerbaijani quartet highly impressed both the audience and jury. Thus, Parviz Gasimov and a trio from Azerbaijan were awarded one of the first two places of the prestigious competition. The second first prize was awarded to the duo Qomuzchilar from Kyrgyzstan.

The two second places were taken by the ensembles Archabil from Turkmenistan and Khatan from Mongolia, three third places were shared by groups from Tajikistan, Russia and Uzbekistan.

By unanimous decision of the jury, performers from Uzbekistan were awarded the Grand Prix of the festival. The winner was a student of the State Conservatoire Mehrinigar Abdurashidova.

In his interview with R+, a member of the jury, the rector of the Azerbaijan National Conservatory, Professor Siyavush Karimi, noted very talented performers among the participants of the competition. “But the audience was expecting something. They were interested to know the place that Azerbaijani musicians would take because the performances of our singers are always highly appreciated. Azerbaijan has repeatedly participated in the Sharq Taronalari festival usually taking one of the first places. Surprisingly, this time we also took the first place,” S. Kerimi said.

By the way, the guests of the festival jokingly told us that Azerbaijan should no longer be invited to the festival, as our performers do not allow others to win the competition.

The joke is partially true, and Mr. Kerimi also agrees with this. “In Italy, for example, there is a violin competition where Italians are not allowed to perform. I think that Azerbaijanis also need to be banned from participation in competitions. Rather, they should be invited to master classes,” S. Karimi jokes.

But Mr. Kerimi believes that participation is important, should be done often. “As our national leader Heydar Aliyev once said that a country is recognized through its culture. The more we promote the Azerbaijani culture, the more it will benefit our country. Moreover, it is a unique culture, it is very loved all over the world,” said the professor.

The winner of the first prize, Parviz Gasimov, also admits that the competition at the Samarqand festival was tense. However, careful preparation for the competition, support of the audience and an objective assessment of the jury helped him to guarantee the victory. “I really wanted to take part in the Samarqand festival. I really wanted to be the best performer. That is why we rehearsed for three months without a break, and the result is obvious. The competition was great with very strong performers on stage. But we were ready to compete,” Parviz said in his interview. “I was really shocked by the interest of the audience. Our performance was second to last, it was almost midnight, but the hall was not empty. I was really impressed. They did not want to let us go.” According to Parviz, the cause of such attention was the great love for the Azerbaijani mugham in the world.

Parviz Gasimov thanked professor Kerimi for his advice to take part in the festival and the honoured artist of Azerbaijan, famous tar player Malik Mansurov for the composition specially prepared for the Samarqand contest.

Malik Mansurov says that they took the participation in the festival very seriously. They knew that it would not be easy to surprise professionals. “Traditional mugham is part of the culture of many peoples of the East. In order to win the competition, one must show something unusual, go beyond the standards. At the same time, the performance must not be artificial,” Mansurov explained.

Mansurov also noted that the composition they performed was based on the works of prominent Azerbaijani composers Fikret Amirov and Ramiz Mirishli, giving the performer freedom of action, which in many ways helped them win. “This tradition comes from the great Uzeyir Hajibeyli. In a single composition, he could freely switch from one mugham to another. In other words, our mugham is a very democratic kind of music, and it would be wrong not to promote it,” M. Mansurov said.

Meanwhile, the performance of the Azerbaijani quartet in Samarqand also impressed the buyers from different countries. An impresario from China, for example, has already invited our performers to his country for a concert scheduled for December.

Same as Samarqand has been a symbolic point on the Great Silk Road for centuries, so the international festival Sharq Taronalari has become a platform uniting different peoples and cultures. Most importantly, citing the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, “in our turbulent times with various conflicts and armed confrontations intensifying throughout the planet and people increasingly involved in the virtual 'reality', music evokes wonderful, good feelings, hope and faith in our souls."