Uzeyir Hajibeyli — the man who reconciled East and West in one score
Staged in Baku in 1908, “Leyli and Majnun” was the first opera in the Muslim East. Its author also wrote the theory of mugham.
Composers
Niyazi — the composer behind the podium
He led the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra for half a century and wrote the symphonic mugham “Rast”.
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- Əkrəm Babayev
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Niyazi Tagizade-Hajibeyov was born in Tbilisi in 1912, the son of the composer Zulfugar Hajibeyov and nephew of Uzeyir Hajibeyli. His role in Azerbaijani music is double: composer, and the country's principal conductor.
The conductor
For decades Niyazi was chief conductor of the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra. Hajibeyli's “Koroghlu”, Garayev's ballets, Amirov's symphonic mughams — a great many of these works were first heard under his baton.
Abroad, from Turkey to Russia, he was the most active advocate Azerbaijani music had.
The composer
His symphonic mugham “Rast” (1949) is the second significant work in the genre Amirov opened.
The ballet “Chitra”, after Rabindranath Tagore, grew out of his interest in Indian culture; in 1974 he received the international Nehru Prize.
Niyazi died in Baku in 1984. His house-museum in the city keeps his archive.
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Uzeyir Hajibeyli's lifelong friend and the second founder of Azerbaijani classical music. The State Philharmonic bears his name.
Zulfugar Hajibeyov — the founder of musical comedy
Uzeyir's elder brother and Niyazi's father — author of the opera “Ashiq Gharib” and a founder of the Musical Comedy Theatre.