Karayev: Ballet Suites

Featuring

Rauf Abdullayev
Moscow State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra
Gara Garayev

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Kara Karayev was a versatile composer who assimilated seemingly incompatible traditions, often synthesizing Prokofievian chromaticism with Azerbaijani folk modality.

Compositional Technique

In his ballet 'Seven Beauties', Kara Karayev's dramatic principles approach those of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, with a striking symphonic development and structurally organized thematic material.

Composition History

Kara Karayev's ballet 'In The Path of Thunder' was written in 1957 and won the prestigious Lenin Prize in 1967.

Composer Biography

Kara Karayev, a leading figure in Azerbaijani music after World War II, studied composition with Dmitri Shostakovich from 1942 to 1946.

Compositional Technique

Kara Karayev's ballet 'Seven Beauties' combines through-composition with number form, fusing fantastic, lyrical, and psychological images with impetuous folk dance scenes.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Kara Karayev's integral aesthetic involvement with folklore is revealed in 'Seven Beauties' through the free use of rhythmic formulae from national dances and the melodic and harmonic support of folk modality.

Performer Biography

Rauf Abdullayev, the conductor on this album, has served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra since 1984.