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Gara Garayev’s “Sonatina” and Sevda Mammadli’s “Lachin Ballad” were other Azerbiaijani highlights.
Garayev was a famous composer when Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, and the Seven Beauties ballet was one of his most famous pieces.
Gara Garayev – a prominent #Azerbaijan|i composer was born #OTD in 1918 in Baku.
His impact on the Azerbaijani national symphonic, chamber-instrumental and vocal genres, film music, opera and ballet was tremendous.
An excerpt from his ballet “Seven Beauties, filmed in 1954. pic.twitter.com/Dc6RG2k3zw
— Farah 🤍 (@FarahG777) February 5, 2022
The programme also featured Sergey Rachmaninov’s “Fugue in D minor” and Emin Sabitoglu’s “Dade Gorgud” movie themes, alongside fragments from Fikrat Amirov’s ballet “One Thousand and One Nights” and Vasif Adigozalov’s music piece “Baku”.
Set in the wild and beautiful Caucasus mountains, the festival started out as a purely classical one but has opened up to other music genres over time.
Arranged by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and supported by the Ministry of Culture, the festival is now an annual celebration of not just classical but folk, jazz and dance music too.
And it’s enjoyed by both local people and visitors from many countries, most of them in the Arab world.
This year the festival was also dedicated to national leader Heydar Aliyev.
He was born 100 years ago and was the first president of independent Azerbaijan after the Soviet Union collapsed. He ruled for 10 years before handing over power to his son Ilham Aliyev.
Ilham Aliyev remains the current president and will have ruled the country for 20 years this October.
