Wonderful piano music sounds in Baku

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Wonderful piano music has sounded at the State Philharmonic Hall as part of the "Youth Support" project.

Speaking before the concert, musicologist Tamilla Ahadova noted that Azerbaijan pays great attention to the development and formation of the younger generation.

She stressed the importance of the project "Youth Support" in promoting of young talents.

The "Youth Support" project has been held since 2016 to discover and support young talents in Azerbaijan.

The project is headed by the director of the State Philharmonic Hall, People's Artist of Azerbaijan Murad Adigozalzadeh, and the project coordinator is Ayla Karimova-Zekeriyye.

Within the project, concert programs are traditionally held several times a month at the State Philharmonic Hall.

The programs presented within the project are designed for a wide audience with different musical tastes, including connoisseurs of high academic performance, mugham, jazz, etc.

These events are being held with the support of the Culture Ministry and the Baku Music Academy.

The musicologist Tamilla Akhadova spoke about talented pianists Vurgun Vakilov and Atabala Manafzade,

The names of Vurgun Vakilov and Atabala Manafzade are included into the Golden Book of Azerbaijan's young talents. 

Vurgun Vakilov  musician is a laureate and winner of the first place at various competitions and festivals, including the 8th Citta di Pesaro International Competition  (Italy), the 10th International Piano Competition named after Adila Aliyeva (France) and others.

Vakilov is a student at Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot. He is the great-grandson of the people's poet of Azerbaijan Samad Vurgun.

Atabala Manafzade has won first place at the 9th Davorin Jenko International Competition (Serbia), the 7th Pera Piano Competition (Turkey) and others.

During the concert, laureates of republican and international competitions, Presidential scholarship holders Vurgun Vakilov and Atabala Manafzade thrilled the audience with works by M. Mussorgsky, A. Scriabin, S. Rachmaninov.

The evening was opened by Vurgun Vakilov who brilliantly performed Modest Mussorgsky's suite of ten piano pieces "Pictures at an Exhibition".

Next, Atabala Manafzade performed Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 3 and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor.

At the end of the concert, the musicians played an encore Antonin Dvorak's "Slavic Dances".