Gunel Mirzayeva was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and started her piano studies there. She is now studying in London and on Sunday, 26 January plays at St Peter’s Church, Marlborough as part of the second series of Brilliant Young Pianist recitals.
Gunel, who is 26 years old, will be breaking new ground as the first pianist in the series to choose a piece by a living composer – the Russian Sofia Gubaidulina.
However, Gunel told Marlborough News Online that her great passion is J.S. Bach’s keyboard music. This passion was inspired by the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould: “I always played a lot of Bach’s music but after hearing Glenn Gould’s Bach I knew it is something special. Since then my passion for Bach’s music has taken a particular place in my life.”
For her St Peter’s recital she will playing works by J.S. Bach, Schubert and Schuman. Sofia Gubaidulina will be a new name to many concert-goers in this country.
Gubaidulina is now 82 years old. She was born to the east of Moscow in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now part of the Russian Federation) – near the Ural Mountains.
When she was studying in Moscow, her compositions were judged as “irresponsible” by the Communist authorities. They did not like the way she ventured into alternative musical forms and harmonics.
Gubaidulina was supported by Dimitri Shostakovich, who was himself often in trouble with Stalin and the Ministry of Culture. Marking her final exam Shostakovich encouraged the young composer to continue down her “mistaken path”.
In the 1980s Gubaidulina became known internationally when the violin maestro Gidon Kremer championed her violin concerto entitled Offertorium.
At St Peter’s Church, Gunel will be playing her Chaconne: “Sofia Gubaidulina’s music is really dramatic, but I would say it is really private at the same time. She is a very special character and has interesting views on music.”
“This particular Chaconne allows me enough space to try and feel free, to try something new each time. But its line, mood and solid structure gives the piece what I call its ‘monumental character’.”
Gunel is grateful to the ‘great teachers’ she has studied with: Yuri Sabatyev and Tatyana Ryabuha in Baku and Ronan O’Hora at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
And Glenn Gould aside, she had lots of inspiring role models: “It’s not only teachers, but parents and artists, movie actors and even sportsmen (I’m a great football fan) who I admired and wanted to be like.”
Gunel is certainly a fan of London: “London is great. It’s the city where you can do anything you want. I enjoy living here. Of course Baku is my home town and that’s my roots, that’s who I am and where I’m from.”
Now she’s staying on in London to study for an MA in Music Business Management at the University of Westminster. She told MNO that she wanted to try something new and might regret it later if she did not start now: “Apart from performing, I also have some plans for the future about creating a Music Academy and music festivals and I wanted to gain more knowledge of the non-artistic side of music and gain confidence before trying out these plans.”
Gunel has been performing in many parts of Europe – including a performance in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw which was broadcast live on Dutch radio and has played concertos with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra.
Gunel says she loves the opportunities her music gives her to meet new people. But the travelling is sometimes not such fun: “I don’t think I enjoy travelling too much when it is related to work because I am nervous about performing and how things are going to work out.” Once the performance is over, she enjoys making new friends.
Dr Nick Maurice, the organiser of the Brilliant Young Pianist recitals, says of Gunel’s growing international reputation: “We are immensely fortunate to hear her in our ‘small market town’.”
For the St Peter’s recital and apart from the Gubaidulina Chaconne, Gunel will be playing J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 6, two impromptus by Schubert and Schumann’s Carnaval Op. 9.
The Brilliant Young Pianists series is given on behalf of the Marlborough Brandt Group and St Peter’s Trust and is supported by Robert Hiscox and Hiscox Insurance.
For details about tickets please go to our What’s On calendar.
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