Memorial plaque dedicated to Kara Karaev unveiled in Moscow

By Vestnik Kavkaza

On June 20 the grand unveiling of a memorial plaque dedicated to the great Azerbaijani composer Kara Karaev took place in Moscow, in front of the house in Tryokhprudny Lane where the composer lived and worked. The event was attended by well-known cultural and political figures, as well as Muscovites.

The chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, noted that the unveiling of a memorial plaque dedicated to Kara Karaev in Moscow is a very important event. "The great Kara Karaev and the memory of him is part of the world musical repository, not only of the Soviet or Azerbaijani one. His famous works are known far beyond the former Soviet Union. And today many generations of developing and accomplished musicians, composers and performers are brought up working with his music," Leonid Slutsky told Vestnik Kavkazka in an interview.

He also stressed the close relations between Azerbaijan and Russia: "This relationship is not feverish, it is developing progressively. And, of course, cultural cooperation has always been its guiding force, its flagship as well as a large number of music forums where the name of Kara Karaev is always an emblem, a symbol, our shared memory."

The executive director of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation in the CIS and former director of the Bolshoi Theatre Anatoly Iksanov said that he was very touched by the event. He also noted that Kara Karaev was one of his favorite composers: "Just the other day I once again watched a movie which was filmed in 1982. I do not know if Kara Karaev had seen it. It was a film-ballet "Seven Beauties" performed by artists of the Azerbaijani Opera and Ballet Theater with such wonderful dancers, and my old friends as Natalia Bolshakova and Vadim Gulyaev as solo dancers. The music was exceptionally emotional - it made me cry. In 2011 we received the Azerbaijani Opera and Ballet Theater with the "Seven Beauties" ballet. It is an absolutely wonderful experience. The music is incredible, I can still hear it in my ears. I am glad that Muscovites will see this plaque and know that Kara Karaev is a great composer, not only an Azerbaijani one, but also a Russian composer, being a great musician of a world-wide scale."

Kara Karaev's son Faraj Garayev, who also composes music, talked about why the house in Tryokhprudny Lane was chosen as the location of the memorial plaque: "The life of my father was associated with Moscow since 1937, when as a student of the Baku Music College, being only 18-19 years old, almost a boy, he came to Moscow to conduct a brass band on Red Square. Later, my father entered the Moscow Conservatory, studied there and lived in a dormitory. He later lived in a communal apartment on Lesnaya Street, and left for Baku when he graduated from the Conservatory. But the connection was never interrupted and Moscow was always in the creative plans of my father, he worked with Lenfilm studios, composed music for movies, worked at the Bolshoi Theater, with various drama theaters, and always stayed in hotels. It was very difficult. In the end, the government of Azerbaijan put in a request to the Moscow authorities to give him an apartment. My father got a flat, a very small one, 32 square meters, near Dynamo metro station. But there was a very interesting note with it, which allowed him to exchange it for a larger flat. He arranged the exchange, and for the last 10 years of his life my father lived here. He was ill, but he loved this apartment, and worked in it a lot. In the best years of his life, it was normal for my father to work 15 hours a day at a piano (when he lived in the apartment he certainly worked less) and it was not an out of the ordinary custom. It was here that he composed the symphony "Goya", 12 Fugues for piano, his latest works. All in all, Moscow and Baku were very important milestones in his life."

Musical expert of the Kultura TV channel Vladislav Flyarkovsky noted that the unveiling of a memorial plaque dedicated to the outstanding Azerbaijani composer Kara Karaev once again reminded him of what a great city Moscow is and how many great people had lived in it. As for the role of Kara Karaev in the musical history of the Soviet Union, Flyarkovsky said that the role of Kara Karaev is "like the role of the sun in daytime."

The head of the Department of Culture of Moscow, Sergei Kapkov, noted the critical importance of the unveiling of the memorial dedicated to Kara Karaev: "It wonderful that we have managed to perpetuate his memory in the city center. It is important that there are about 1.5 million Azerbaijanis in Russia and about half of them live in Moscow and the Moscow region. There are doctors, musicians and artists among them. We have friendships and cooperation with all of them. It is a large diaspora, visible in the city.