Exposure to music from Azerbaijan in western Europe often comes
these days through so-called 'world' or 'fusion' recordings
performed by photogenic natives, often émigrés, such as jazz
pianist Aziz Mustafa Zadeh. The occasional recording of 'mugam'
music, the folk-classical tradition of Azerbaijan, is also available,
but the kind of Europe-facing art music featured here, initiated
by Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885-1948) a century ago and shaped by
Soviet influence, is still all too rare on disc and concert
platform alike. Naxos have made a start with orchestral music
from Fikret Amirov (review)
and Kara Karayev (review),
but now would be a good time to ramp up their low-key 'Azerbaijani
Composers' series.
Surprisingly perhaps, Fikret Amirov's Piano Concerto is strongly
redolent, especially in the first movement, of Manuel de Falla's
Nights in the Gardens of Spain - such was the influence
of Arab culture right across southern Europe. Whilst Falla's
Generalife movement recalls the famous Alhambra court,
Amirov's work is based on Arabian folk-tunes interwoven with
his native music in a traditional European format. The track-listing
shows Elmira Nazirova - muse of and immortalised by Shostakovich
in his Tenth Symphony - as co-composer of the Concerto, whereas
the notes say Amirov wrote it "in collaboration with"
her.
At any rate, where Amirov's populist Concerto is good, Adigezalov's
Fourth is profound and spectacular, reminiscent, at least in
spirit, of Khachaturian's Concerto, though that was written
60 years earlier. Neither Amirov's nor Adigezalov's Concerto
is especially alien-sounding: essentially lyrical, picturesquely
orchestrated with rich harmonies and spiky rhythms, they both
have an early-to-mid-20th century feel to them, European with
the added frisson of byways passing through exotic scales.
Guliyev’s Gaytagi is a lot of fun, bristling with jauntiness
and excitement - he can be forgiven for founding Azerbaijan's
first state 'pops' orchestra and its first jazz orchestra! Pianist
Farhad Badalbeyli's own The Sea is also light, but in
a different way: altogether more lush, small-R romantic and
filmic - along the lines of Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto
indeed, though making more use of clichés. His Shusha,
a vocalise for soprano and orchestra, is similarly undemanding,
and arguably out of place on this disc, but both works are pleasant
to listen to and well performed.
Badalbeyli has been an important figure in Azerbaijani musical
life for three decades. Even if his compositions here are the
weakest part of the CD, his piano technique is very impressive,
although he is possibly outshone by Murad Adigezalzade, who
gives a heroic account of Adigezalov's Fourth Concerto. Naxos
must now tempt Adigezalzade - or Badalbeyli - to record the
other three, and also ask Yablonsky and the RPO to get on with
Adigezalov's four symphonies.
Incidentally, the Azeri language usually undergoes a minor amount
of transliteration into European languages. Thus Tofig Guliyev's
name is written and sometimes met as Tofiq Quliyev in Azer,
though the pronunciation is barely affected. Adigezalov is occasionally
seen as the equally valid Adigozalov, Adygozalov or even - in
New Grove - Adygözälov.
Engineers and producer also deserve a mention here: sound and
general technical quality is excellent. The CD booklet is slim
but informative.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
See also reviews by Rob
Barnett and Steve
Arloff
Farhad Badalbeyli (piano)
