Azerbaijan Mugam for orchestra No. 1, "Shur"

• Date: 1948
• Composer: Fikret Amirov
• Period: Modern (1910-1949)

Review

Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov received his early musical training from his father, a well-known singer and instrumentalist. He graduated in 1948 from the Azerbaijan State Conservatory where he studied composition with Boris Zeydman (a former pupil of the son-in-law of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov). Conservative and romantic, Amirov's style is a marriage of traditional Azerbaijani folk music and Western classical forms. During the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, composers in the former Soviet republics were expected to conform to a national "Russian" style. Consequently, much of Amirov's orchestral writing owes much to an earlier generation of composition exemplified in the music of the "Mighty Five: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, and Modest Mussorgsky. Shur, a symphonic suite in nine movements, won the Stalin Prize in 1948 and proved to be Amirov's first real success. (The title refers to an ancient Azerbaijani musical mode.) The first of three popular orchestral suites, Shur is based on an Azerbaijani musical form called the mugam, a large vocal and instrumental work. Colorfully orchestrated and rhapsodic, this piece is obviously beholden to Rimsky-Korsakov. The work is marked by virtuosic instrumental solos written in the improvisatory vocal style of the mugam. For more music by Amirov, look to his Symphonic Dances (1963-64) and Azerbaijan Capriccio (1961-62). Readers are encouraged to explore the styles of the composers mentioned above, as well as the Russian Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Romanian Georges Enescu.

Similar compositions: Scheherazade for Orchestra, Op. 35 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) Gayanne for Orchestra (ballet in three acts) by Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978

Recommended recording: Shur (Azerbaijan Mugam No. 1) on ASV 1014 with conductor Antonio de Almeida and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. ~ Mona DeQuis, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Fikret Amirov: Shur

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