Yesterday, Azerbaijan held a celebration devoted to the Day of National Music, which is celebrated annually on September 18, on the birthday of the founder of the professional musical art of Azerbaijan, Uzeyir Hajibeyli.
The mission of Rossotrudnichestvo, in cooperation with the State Museum of Musical Culture of Azerbaijan, organized a musical evening dedicated to the 130th jubilee of the maestro.
The Honored Worker of Culture of Azerbaijan, Director of the Museum, Alla Bayramova, and the Deputy Head of the Mission of Rossotrudnichestvo in Azerbaijan, Alexey Konnov, addressed the audience with a word about the great Azerbaijani composer, Interfax-Azerbaijan reports.
At the end, Alexey Konnov gave the participants memorable music discs, which Rossotrudnichestvo specially issued for the 70th anniversary of the Victory.
And in the evening the Heydar Aliyev Palace in Baku held a grand opening of the VII International Music Festival dedicated to the 130th anniversary of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, which is traditionally held at the organization of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.
Traditionally, the International Music Festival opens on September 18 on National Music Day, which went down in history as the birthday of genius composer and founder of Azerbaijani professional music, musicologist, scientist and encyclopedist Uzeyir Hajibeyli.
The Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, Adalat Valiyev, who spoke at the opening ceremony, told about the life and creative activity of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, highlighting the great contribution made by the composer to the development and promotion of national musical art.
The ceremony was attended by prominent public figures, famous figures of science, culture and the arts. Before the event the guests got acquainted with the exhibition, which includes photographs and archival materials reflecting the life and career of the eminent composer. Also, a book exhibition ‘Uzeyir Hajibeyli-130’, which includes publications on the activities of the maestro, was presented to the attention of the audience.
The Deputy Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan in his speech noted that the first opera by Uzeyir Hajibeyli, ‘Leyla and Majnun’, opened a new page in the history of Azerbaijani music. The composer also wrote the opera ‘Sheikh Sanan’, ‘Rustam and Zohrab’, ‘Asli and Karam’, ‘Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu’ and ‘Haroun and Leila’, but the pinnacle of the composer's work is the opera ‘Koroglu'. Hajibeyli also the author of the favorite musical comedies ‘Husband and Wife’, ‘Not That, So This’ and the widely popular operetta ‘Arshin Mal Alan’.
Adalat Valiyev noted that, in the 10 days of the festival, art events and concerts and conferences devoted to the composer will take place in the country in many cultural institutions.
Next a rich musical program was presented to the audience, in which the best examples of the musical heritage of the genius Azerbaijani composer were played.
The Uzeyir Hajibayov Azerbaijani State Symphonic Orchestra under the baton of the art director and chief conductor, People's Artist Rauf Abdullayev, the Azerbaijani State Choir, the ballet company and the soloists of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Azerbaijani State Dance Ensemble, the staff of the Azerbaijan State Musical Theatre performed on the stage of the Heydar Aliyev Palace.
The grand opening of the festival was a bright event in the cultural life of Baku, the performance of the musicians, singers, actors and dancers were greeted by the audience with enthusiastic applause.
The international music festival dedicated to the 130th anniversary of Uzeyir Hajibeyli is a unique celebration of music that allows to touch the creative heritage of the great composer.
The festival, which will take place on September 18-28, will host well- known musicians and groups from Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Syria, Canada, Italy, Turkey along with the Azerbaijani artists.
Among them are the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the Russian quintet of wind instruments, the Russian saxophone quartet, Michele Campanella, Oleg Pohanovsky, Tanel Yoamets, Keenan Azmeh, Miina Järvi and others.
Recently Azerbaijan celebrated the birthdays of the great Azerbaijani composers Uzeyir Hajibeyov and Muslim Magomayev. For many years this date has been celebrated as the country's National Music Day.
The composer, conductor, musicologist, essayist, playwright and public figure Uzeyir Hajibeyli was born in September 1885 in the village of Agjabadi near Shusha, in the family of a rural clerk Abdul Huseyn Hajibeyov and Shirinbeyim Khanum of the Aliverdibekovyh family. He had three brothers and two sisters.
After graduating from madrassas and a two-year Russian-Tatar school, Hajibeyov studied at the teachers' seminary in the city of Gori in the period from 1899 to 1904, where the seminarian Hajibeyov learned to play the violin, cello and wind instruments, and met future composer Muslim Magomayev (the grandfather of the singer Muslim Magomayev). Over the next four years he taught at schools in Hadrut and Baku. In 1905 Uzeyir Hajibeyov taught in Baku at the Bibi-Heybat school and then at the school ‘Saadat’, where he taught the Azerbaijani language, mathematics, geography, history and the Russian language.
In the period from 1914 to 1918 Hajibeyov was the editor, and then the owner of the newspaper ‘Yeni Igbal’, and later he was an editor of the newspaper ‘Azerbaijan’. In the period from June to September 1918 he led tours of the Azerbaijani opera singers to the Iranian cities of Rasht and Anzali. In 1920 the Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan. In the same year the composer introduced a report on the need to open the Music Academy and the People's Conservatory, as well as the transfer of his former music school buildings to the People's Commissariat of Education of the Azerbaijani SSR. In subsequent years Uzeyir Hajibeyov led the Azerbaijani Turkic musical school, created on his initiative.
In 1925 he was elected as a deputy of the Baku Soviet, and the following year he became the vice-rector of the Azerbaijani State Conservatory. In 1931 Uzeyir Hajibeyov organized a folk orchestra, and in 1936 a State Choir. A year later, the composer was appointed as the rector of the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire and in 1939 he was elected as a member of the Organizing Committee of the First Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers. In September 1945 Hajibeyov was appointed as a director of the Institute of Arts of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR. The composer died on November 23, 1948 in Baku of heart failure. He was buried in the Alley of Honor in Baku.
Abdul Mohammed oglu Muslim Magomayev was born on September 18, 1885 in Grozny. He studied at the Grozny city school, where he began to play the violin, then at the Transcaucasian Teachers Seminary in Gori, where among his classmates was Uzeyir Hajibeyov, who later became his brother-in-law.
Having mastered playing the oboe, Magomayev became a soloist of the orchestra of the seminary, and sometimes worked there as a conductor. At the same time, he began actively to learn Azerbaijani folk music. After graduating from the seminary he began working at a school in Lenkoran, where he organized musical evenings and theatrical performances. In 1911 Magomayev moved to Baku, where he became a soloist of the orchestra of the Azerbaijani Musical Theater, and soon became its conductor.
In 1919 Magomayev composed his first major work, the opera ‘Shah Ismayil’, which became one of his best known works. The first version of the opera had a lot of colloquial episodes, and the music was based on the principles of improvisation and mugham, but in the second and third editions the dialogues were replaced with recitatives. Being one of the first works in which the idea of folk music (especially improvisation) resolved within the framework of developed operatic forms, ‘Shah Ismail’ became a milestone in the development of Azerbaijani music.
In addition to actively composing, Magomayev also held public positions: he headed the Azerbaijani branch of the People's Commissariat of Education, was artistic director of the musical theater, and in 1929 became music director of the Azerbaijani radio center. In 1935 Magomayev was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Azerbaijani SSR. He wrote operas such as ‘Shah Ismail’, ‘Horuz Bey’ (unfinished), ‘Nargis’ and the orchestral composition ‘In the Fields of Azerbaijan’, ‘Dance of the Liberated Azerbaijani Women’, music for theater and films, folk songs and dances, popular songs.
Muslim Magomayev died on July 28, 1937. The Baku Philharmonic Hall is named after his name. The composer Muslim Magomayev is the grandfather of the singer Muslim Magomayev.
