Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov (1922-1984).
Amirov was much decorated in Soviet Russia, awarded the Stalin Prize in 1949, honored as People’s Artist of the USSR in 1965, and the recipient of the USSR State Prize in 1980.
In 1959, he was one of several Soviet composers – including Konstantin Dankevich, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Tikhon Khrennikov, and Dmitri Shostakovich – who traveled to the United States at the invitation of the U.S. State Department, as part of a Soviet-American cultural exchange agreement, which had allowed American composers Roy Harris, Ulysses Kay, Peter Mennin, and Roger Sessions to visit the Soviet Union the previous year.
And look what I found! A 30-minute broadcast, “Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers,” produced by WGBH Boston in 1959. Nicolas Slonimsky pitches a question to Amirov, and he responds, around 16:40. Shostakovich speaks around 12:00 and 24:00.
The Soviet composers arrive in Philadelphia on November 6, 1959.
Amirov is perhaps best known in the West from Leopold Stokowski’s recording of “Kyurdi Ovshari” – issued as “Azerbaijan Mugam”
Though unquestionably his largest audience was thanks to Michelle Kwan, whose “Taj Mahal” routine was skated to Amirov’s “Gulistan Bayati-Shiraz”
https://youtu.be/KHpA1_3R0BU?t=214
More recently, Yo-Yo Ma recorded “Kor Arab” (“Song of the Blind Arab”) with the Silk Road Ensemble.
In honor of Amirov’s centenary, I devoted “The Lost Chord” on Sunday night to two of his works: “Six Pieces for Flute and Piano” and selections from the ballet “Arabian Nights.” Here’s a link to my Facebook teaser.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=984611895791207&set=a.883855802533484
You’ll find the actual program, “Azerbaijani Come Lately,” now posted as a webcast on the WWFM – The Classical Network website at wwfm.org.
If you happen to be in New York City tonight, there is a tantalizing program scheduled for Carnegie Hall, with the New York International Virtuosi Orchestra and pianist Nargiz Aliyarova. The concert, “Bridge of Friendship,” is dedicated to Amirov and will include music by Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Jewish composers. Among the selections will be Amirov’s “Azerbaijan Capriccio” and the U.S. premiere of the “Piano Concerto on Arabian Themes.” Alexander Markov will be the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. You’ll find more information at the link.
If, like me, you won’t be able to make it, there’s some consolation to be found in this video of Aliyarova playing the concerto in Azerbaijan.
Happy birthday, Fikret Amirov!
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