Although at the last moment President Serdar Berdymuhamedov joined the other Central Asian leaders in Moscow’s Red Square, not to leave the Russian older brother alone, parades and patriotic musical concerts have been held in his country since the beginning of May .
Ashgabat () – Turkmenistan also joins the celebrations of the Victory over Nazism, the cornerstone of post-Soviet identity, but, as always, it does so with very folkloric characteristics, to highlight its own identity. Although at the last moment President Serdar Berdymuhamedov joined the other Central Asian leaders in Moscow’s Red Square, so as not to leave the Russian older brother alone, parades and particularly patriotic musical concerts have been taking place in his country since the beginning of May. intense and solemn
The central act was precisely the “Music of Victory”, which took place at the “Maja Kulevaja” National Conservatory, where not only dances and figures with traditional costumes were presented, but special emphasis was given to the participation of students , teachers and “popular musicians”, like a choir of children, children of collaborators of the Conservatory. The huge audience brought together the few war veterans with crowds of jubilant children, and the show is being repeated in theaters and theaters across the country.
The concert was conducted by the country’s most famous aksakal, composer and teacher Atageld Garjagdiev, accompanied by soprano Sukhana Tujlieva, who dramatically performed the song Uruzdan gelmedik adam, “The brother who didn’t come back from the war.” Next, the baritone Nury Khalmamedov interpreted “The memory of the soldier”, and the tenor Mejlis Muratgeldiev interpreted Mirazdar, “The heir”. Together with the students, the legendary “Dance of the Storks” was danced, with birds fluttering over the hall.
In the background, a video showed the most outstanding episodes of the war chronicle of the Great Patriotic War, and a few minutes of silence were reserved for the fallen. Another concert proposes the “Waltz before the war” by Pavel Aedonitsky, the great composer who died in 2013, who had solemnly set to music an 1840 song by his great-grandfather Fedor, a cantor from the Orthodox Church who intended to commemorate the victory over Napoleon. Aedonitsky, being very young, was a war doctor and in Russia he saved many people in the naval hospital “Karl Libknecht” on the Volga. He did not want to claim heroic merit, but he asked to be admitted to the Conservatory.
In another room, the Anthem of the Defense of the Fatherland resounds, along with the song “Holy War” by the composer Aleksandr Aleksandrov with lyrics by the poet Vasilij Lebedev, accompanied by the “Brass Star” wind orchestra conducted by Kakadzhan Khudajberdyev. Next, the piece on “Tragic Fate” is performed on the dutar, the two-stringed lute typical of Central Asia, in which Lacin Khudajberdyeva, wife of the conductor, presents herself according to the traditional image of the “Motherland”. , in the national costume with silver decorations, to remember “the generous gift of Turkmen mothers” who sacrifice themselves during wars and also donate all their jewelry. In World War II, 7.5 tons of gold and silver were collected from the mothers, 80% of all precious metals in the country.
At the end of the concerts, the children in military uniform parade, forming the group called “El Pequeño País”, and they sing the peace song “The Soldier’s Rest” walking and running around the stage, greeting the public and invoking a world of peace and joy, so necessary in the times we are living in and that Turkmenistan always tries to stage.
