All the preludes are short with the longest two running to 3:05 and 5:56. The first prelude embraces innocence and there is about it a feint whiff of the pianola and the orient. They possess variety but given that the set ends with an Andante of shapely melancholy rather than a stormy showstopper, the Preludes feel more like a set from which pianists can pick and choose. The Twenty-Four Preludes (1951-1963) are more of a collection than a sequence. These are joined by an isolated solo from 1937 and a piano arrangement of three movements from a work presented in full and in orchestral dress on Chandos more of that later. There are essentially two works from the 1950s to the early 1960s: The set of Preludes and the Six Pieces for Children. All the pieces on this solo piano recital are quite short. It's strange enough to fascinate and at the same time to be very accessible. Karayev's music is not at all difficult or harsh. Later he moved to the Moscow Conservatoire to study composition with Shostakovich.

Karayev's instruments were the violin and piano and these he studied at Baku Conservatory.

His teachers included the composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov who, Ismailova tells us, 'used mugham in his 1908 opera Leyli and Majnun'. His music sings in otherworldly but accessible tones and is lightly tinged with contemporary and extremely approachable harmonies. 2011/17, Cologne WDR Funkhaus, Klaus von Bismarck SaalĮlnara Ismailova tells us that Kara Karayev is known, in his and her native Azerbaijani, as Qara Qaraev. The Statue in Tsarskoye Selo (1937) ĭon Quichotte - Symphonic Sketches (1960, arr.

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Karayev 10 preludes for piano