On the operatic disc there are six tracks allocated to Hajibeyov who wrote the first Azerbaijani opera, Leyli and Majnun in 1908. This was the first mugam opera ever written. Mugam refers to eastern modal music. There were to be six more operas after this. The most famous is Koroglu (1938) of which five extracts are included. While the Tar is included in the orchestra there are not too many overtly Eastern touches. The music moves between a Bizet-like vivacity (some bombast along the way) to Massenet's passionate operatic style (evident in the two Nigar arias from Koroglu) sung by the impressively secure and tempestuous Garina Karimova - a role she has made her own. The most exotic aria is the Song of Khananda swayed or sung here by the gorgeous-sounding Safura Azimi. The uproariously pipe-dominated orchestral dance from Act 3 makes a good finale to this mixed suite. The opera Arshin Mal Alan is represented by the Polovtsi-like Askar's Aria sung by the innocent-voiced Ilgar Muradov.

Magomayev was born in Grozny now part of Russian Chechnya. There are two extracts from his 1916 opera Shah Ismayil. The overture and the Shah's aria are strong rhapsodic little pieces with Tchaikovskian credentials. Almost twenty years later Magomayev wrote his second major operatic work Nargiz which was premiered on 24 December 1935. Karimova sings Nargiz’s aria which approximates in style to Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin but with eastern accents. This is rather old-fashioned for 1935 but extremely attractive.

During the depths of World War II Garayev and Hajiyev collaborated to produce Vatan (Motherland). It was written, rather like Yuri Shaporin's war trilogy, and a host of other works, to celebrate the desperate valour of the Soviet people. Mukhtar Malikov is excellent in this with a heroic Puccinian ring to both his singing in Mardan's aria and to Garayev's and Hajiyev's writing. I would like to hear more of this opera. I wonder if there is a recording of the complete article. Hajiyev also wrote five symphonies (1944, 1946, 1947, 1956, 1963), an oratorio for Stalin's 70th birthday (1949) and a symphonic poem using the Azerbaijani modes of segah, chargah, shur and shushtar. Hajiyev was a pupil of Alexandrov and Shostakovich.

Lastly we come to Sevil's aria from the opera Sevil written in 1953 by Fikrat Amirov. His second opera Arabian Nights was written in 1979. Karimova takes this aria which includes extensive melisma as well as a radiant French verismo style akin to that of Hajibeyov in Koroglu.

The words for these operas are not printed in the booklets which, by the way, are in English only.

Favourite works include any of the pieces by Garayev, Mardan's aria from Garayev and Hajiyev Vatan, Huseinli's The First Love, Alizade's Jangi, Hajibeyov's Sansiz and the music of Rafig Babayev.

If you have a taste for hyper-coloured music and enjoy Borodin, Hovhaness, Ravel, Khachaturian and folk music of the mid-eastern steppe then this set is certainly for you.

Rob Barnett