We went to a concert of classical music yesterday (which does not happen often). It was dedicated to the Nobel Prize award to the European Union, and featured young Uzbek artists - the Symphony Orchestra of Tashkent Academy of Music and a number of soloists. I was pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful young soprano here in Tashkent. Her name is Barno Ismatullaeva, and she sang 'Musetta's Waltz' from Puccini's 'La Boheme'. I was thrilled by the very first notes and remained fascinated and fully engaged till the end of the aria. Barno has a lovely soprano, warm and emotional, and she uses this golden instrument really well. Not just me, but everyone seemed to be impressed. I am certainly not an expert in music, but I enjoyed listening to her so much - I now want to see her in opera. I might become a theater goer!
I found her on Youtube; this is a different aria ('Mimi's Story'), but I was pleased to listen to it, too, recalling yesterday night when I was privileged to hear Barno live.
Barno is beautiful, too - a classic Uzbek beauty, like a girl from a miniature painting - but the greatest part of an artist's charm to me is in the talent, the energy she irradiates, the inner strength... I know these are very banal things to say. She needs to be heard and seen to be appreciated - and I certainly hope that she will be appreciated by many people. It feels good to have her here, in Uzbekistan.
Yulduz Usmanova is easily the best Uzbek female singer. She seems to have been forever - I remember we had her album when I was really small - and she still looks young and seems to be full of life. I do not like her musical style in general (there is too much noisy music, to my taste), and I always regret she does not sing folk songs with acoustic accompaniment, or blues and jazz - those styles would suit her voice perfectly, in my view. But certainly I am not the one to tell her what to sing or not to sing. In any case, I love her voice, strong and emotional, with its smoky notes; she uses it skilfully.
This song I have not heard before. The title can be translated as 'Spring, Do You Miss Us, Too?" It is beautiful and is clearly based on folk music. Hope you like it.
I was browsing my music folder looking for something soothing and relaxing before I go to sleep (it is 9pm here), and found this folk song from Georgia (the one in the Caucasus) by Ensemble Tbilisi, from their album "Celebrations for God and Love".
The Georgian people are famous for their singing. And this song is certainly one of the most beautiful ones I have ever heard.
I found a photo to go with the song, too. Even though there is no rain, it has the feel that I wanted. It looks so much like our own houses in the villages. I am groping for words... Never mind. I am not very good at talking, even though I tend to talk a lot. I will show pictures of Uzbekistan later. Not the way it looks in official news, and not the way it is shown by the opposition, no - the way I see it.
I am listening to Patsy Cline today. "She had an amazing vocal range and God bless her she knew how to use it..." - this is so true. Her voice is like honey from our mountains: it is flowing slowly but effortlessly, and its color is amber and light gold. It is full of sunlight and wild herbs, with a hint of bitterness.
"My sadness is light in color", said a great Russian poet, and these are the words which come to my mind when I hear Patsy Cline singing... I have nothing to add. What a loss that she died so early.
