A famous French pianist Vanessa Wagner and a Turkmen musician Arslan Babayev performed a concert at the National Cultural Center on September 26. The cultural event organised by the Embassy of France in Ashgabat and Ministry of Culture and Broadcasting Activities of Turkmenistan was a success.

In the first part of the concert a composer and pianist A. Babayev performed the Turkmen folk melodies and improvised on the works created by N. Khalmamedov. The French guest performed the works created by the prominent European composers Haydn, Debussy, Wagner, Liszt and Skryabin included in the ‘gold fund’ of world music. Vanessa Wagner enchanted the Ashgabat music lovers with the unsurpassed mastership and brilliant technique of performance, the deep emotionality and sensitivity of musical intonations.

The talented pianist has gained the international recognition. When Vanessa was 17 years old she won the first prize of the Paris National Musical Conservatoire and studied at the Department of Masterly Performance and later in Italy, where the masters trained the future musicians.

Vanessa Wagner is well-known all over the world. Vanessa performs the concerts together with the French National orchestra, the Munich and the Budapest philharmonic orchestras, the National orchestra of Mexico, the Capitola Toulouse Orchestra and other famous groups. In 1999 the famous pianist won the prize in the nomination “Solo Instrumental Revelation” in the Musical Victory Contest and in 2002 she performed a concert at the Rock Festival broadcast on the TV channel. Vanessa Wagner released five disks with the works of Rakhmaninov, Skryabin, Schumann, Mozart and Debussy that were highly appreciated by the critics.

Enchanted with the musicians’ talent and masterly performance the audience awarded Vanessa Wagner and Arslan Babaev with a storm of applause.

Those speaking at the opening ceremony noted that the concert brought together the Turkmen and French musicians at the Mukam Palace and became a wonderful present for the Ashgabat music lovers, an evidence of successful Turkmen-French co-operation in the sphere of culture that was an integral part of the relations between the fraternal nations.