Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

A spectacular concert has been held at the Uzeyir Hajibayli Concert Hall of Azerbaijan Composers Union as part of the "Dedication to Nasimi" project.

The event was held on the eve of the 10th Shaki Silk Road International Music Festival, Trend Life reported.

It is noteworthy that in connection with the 650th anniversary of the great Azerbaijani poet Imadaddin Nasimi, President Ilham Aliyev declared 2019 the Year of Nasimi. Various scientific institutions and cultural centers hold a series of events dedicated to the life and creativity of the great poet.

The concert featured musical compositions based on Nasimi’s ghazals composed by young talents Tural Mammadli, Ilakha Israfilova, Kamal Alizade, Aysel Azizova, Vugar Mammadzade, and Sarah Dilruba. Musical compositions were written specifically for this project.

Azerbaijan's classical music also sounded at the concert; for instance, the "Rast" musical composition (violin and piano) by Niyazi. The evening ended with Uzeyir Hajibayli’s "Jangi" for piano.

As part of the event, guests also viewed an exhibition of works by the artist Arif Huseynov. His series of art works "The World of Nasimi" was presented to the public for the first time.

It is noteworthy that the 10th Silk Road International Music Festival will take place in Shaki from June 29 to July 3. The festival is co-organized by the Azerbaijan Composers Union, the Ministry of Culture and Shaki Executive Power. Russian quintet No Indifference, Hungarian instrumental group Kerekes Band and other musicians will perform at the festival.

Imadeddin Nasimi was the great Azerbaijani poet and eminent figure in the poetry and philosophical thought of the Orient. He was the founder of a school of philosophical poetry in the Azerbaijani language.

Known mostly by his pen name Nasimi, he created a number of works in Azerbaijani, Persian and Arabic.

His poetry is rooted in the social, political and cultural development of the countries of the Near and Middle East, and especially of his homeland, Azerbaijan.

Having thought his life, the poet wrote about 300 poems, including ghazals, qasidas (lyrics), and rubais (quatrains).

His “Turkic Divan” is considered his most important work, which contains 250-300 ghazals and more than 150 rubais.

After his death, Nasimi's works continued to exercise a great influence on many Turkic language poets such as Fuzuli (1483–1556), Khatai (1487–1524), and others.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz