Final Doctoral Art Project: Sonatas by Azerbaijani Composers

Pianist Mina Ristić and violinist Isidora Marjanović performed a final doctoral art project at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, featuring sonatas for violin and piano by four Azerbaijani composers: Kara Karayev, Azer Rzayev, Aydin Azimov and Eldar Mansurov.

On 5 February 2021, the Faculty of Music in Belgrade hosted the final doctoral art project of pianist Mina Ristić, a doctoral student of chamber music in the class of associate professor Jasna Tucović. The project is devoted to sonatas for violin and piano by Azerbaijani composers of the second half of the 20th century. Mina Ristić performed it with violinist Isidora Marjanović (then Dramićanin), her long-standing chamber music partner.

The programme consisted of four sonatas. The Sonata for Violin and Piano by Kara Karayev, regarded as one of the greatest Azerbaijani composers, was the only work on the programme by a composer already familiar to local audiences. Azer Rzayev’s Sonata is rich in folk elements and allusions to the sound of traditional instruments. Aydin Azimov’s single-movement Sonata-Poem is built on sharp contrasts between its sections, moving from a “harder” sound to meditative, almost intoxicating passages. The programme closed with the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Eldar Mansurov.

Mina Ristić and Isidora Marjanović prepared the repertoire during the pandemic months of 2020. The composer Eldar Mansurov took part in the work on his Sonata himself: he answered questions about the piece, provided the score and gave a written interview, which became an important source for the written part of the doctoral thesis.

Recordings of all four sonatas were published on Mina Ristić’s YouTube channel, and during February and March 2021 the pianist presented them to the public one by one. The project was the last artistic step before the defence of her doctoral thesis, with which Mina Ristić earned the title of Doctor of Arts in October 2021.