Warm welcome in Ashgabat of the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra

A concert by the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra was held at the Palace of Mukams of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan.

Professor Alexander Sladkovsky, artistic director and chief conductor of the orchestra, People's Artist of Russia and the Republic of Tatarstan, took the conductor's podium to the audience's applause.

The concert program opened with two significant works - Dmitri Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" and "Long Live Peaceful Life!" by Arkadag, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. The audience, which included renowned Turkmen conductors Resul Gylyjov, Rovshen Nepesov, Takhir Atayev, and teachers of the M. Kuliyeva Turkmen National Conservatory, highly appreciated the foreign musicians' mastery. 

The concert program featured classical pieces - fragments from Camille Saint-Saëns' opera "Samson and Delilah," "Polovtsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor," "Dance of the Skomorokhs" from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's fairy tale "The Snow Maiden," and others.

The audience warmly received Tatar folk songs, characterized by cheerful, precise and lively rhythms.

Alexander Tchaikovsky's "Tamerlane's Camp" was interestingly performed by the symphony orchestra. During the fragments of percussion instruments, Alexander Sladkovsky encouraged the audience to join in with clapping, which energized the hall.

The guests from Tatarstan concluded their concert with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov's pathetic ode "Forward, forward, only forward, beloved Homeland Turkmenistan." The audience stood up and sang along to this song.

"Due to my profession, I'm more silent than talkative," Alexander Sladkovsky addressed the audience. "Nevertheless, I sincerely want to thank the Ashgabat audience for their warm reception and everyone who helped to organize this concert. Let the fraternal relations between our countries prosper."