Biography
Soviet Azerbaijani composer Kara Karayev, whose name also appears as Gara Garayev or Qara Qarayev, achieved broad recognition during the late 1940s and 1950s through ballet and orchestral compositions rooted primarily in the late Romantic tradition yet touched by ethnic inflections drawn from Azerbaijan and other regions. Though his fortunes may have improved during periods when Shostakovich fell out of official favor, the younger musician earned the older composer’s respect; his scores display a rare command of orchestration.
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, on February 5, 1918, into a distinguished medical household, Karayev counted among his immediate family one of the earliest graduates from the Russian Music Society’s Baku branch—his mother. He began studies at the Azerbaijani State Conservatory at eight, working with Uzeyir Hajibeyov and additional instructors before advancing to lessons with Shostakovich at the Moscow Conservatory. Two early pieces reached performance in the late 1930s before an audience that included Stalin, sparing the young composer the severe repercussions that had already struck his teacher. Karayev spent World War II teaching in Baku and received a Stalin Prize for the opera Motherland in 1945.
Shortly afterward came two of his most familiar scores: the symphonic poem Leyla and Mejnun and the ballet Seven Beauties, the latter also issued as a suite, both drawn from romantic Persian narratives. In 1958 he completed the ballet Path of Thunder, addressing South African apartheid. When Cold War pressures eased under Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet composers received invitations to the inaugural International Los Angeles Music Festival in 1961; only Karayev and Tikhon Khrennikov, Shostakovich’s persistent critic, made the journey.
At his death in Moscow on May 13, 1982, Karayev’s music had largely faded from view beyond the Soviet Union, and performances stayed infrequent for years. Renewed attention arrived in the 2000s once conductors from the former Eastern Bloc resettled in Western countries whose orchestras sought fresh yet accessible repertory. One illustration is the Bournemouth Symphony’s 2017 account of the Seven Beauties Suite led by expatriate Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits.
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, on February 5, 1918, into a distinguished medical household, Karayev counted among his immediate family one of the earliest graduates from the Russian Music Society’s Baku branch—his mother. He began studies at the Azerbaijani State Conservatory at eight, working with Uzeyir Hajibeyov and additional instructors before advancing to lessons with Shostakovich at the Moscow Conservatory. Two early pieces reached performance in the late 1930s before an audience that included Stalin, sparing the young composer the severe repercussions that had already struck his teacher. Karayev spent World War II teaching in Baku and received a Stalin Prize for the opera Motherland in 1945.
Shortly afterward came two of his most familiar scores: the symphonic poem Leyla and Mejnun and the ballet Seven Beauties, the latter also issued as a suite, both drawn from romantic Persian narratives. In 1958 he completed the ballet Path of Thunder, addressing South African apartheid. When Cold War pressures eased under Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet composers received invitations to the inaugural International Los Angeles Music Festival in 1961; only Karayev and Tikhon Khrennikov, Shostakovich’s persistent critic, made the journey.
At his death in Moscow on May 13, 1982, Karayev’s music had largely faded from view beyond the Soviet Union, and performances stayed infrequent for years. Renewed attention arrived in the 2000s once conductors from the former Eastern Bloc resettled in Western countries whose orchestras sought fresh yet accessible repertory. One illustration is the Bournemouth Symphony’s 2017 account of the Seven Beauties Suite led by expatriate Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits.
Albums
Singles
