sjajarian
Mohammad Reza Shajarian embodied the timeless beauty of Persian music
The singer, who has died aged 80, was silenced in his home nation for his outspoken criticism – but his artistry played on in the hearts of Iranians at home and abroad
I vividly remember the first time I met Mohammad Reza Shajarian on a summer afternoon in Berlin in 2011. He was touring Europe, along with his daughter Mojgan and an ensemble of young musicians. For Iranians, this was – along with North America – the only place they could experience their great idol on stage, given that the outspoken maestro of Persian classical music had been banned from performing inside Iran two years earlier.
Iranian singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian dies aged 80
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He entered the room with a soft demeanour, a little shy; throughout our interview, Shajarian would speak in a low tone so as not to strain his voice before the concert. I recall listening to his tender and remarkably colloquial Farsi, and being touched by his striking humility, even though he was by far the most popular artist of Persian classical music in our times. His death this week at 80 brings an illustrious career to an end.
I met Shajarian again in 2016, in Konya, Turkey, just a few hundred yards from the mausoleum of the 12th-century Sufi saint Jalaluddin Rumi, of whose poetry Shajarian was – along with the verses of Hafez – one of the finest musical interpreters.
Before his concert to mark Rumi’s birthday, which was to be Shajarian’s last public appearance, he already seemed quite frail. Just months earlier the singer had announced he had had kidney cancer for the past 15 years. Shajarian shared with me his deep appreciation for the love and humanism in Rumi’s poems, which had made him accept the invitation to perform in Konya despite ill health.
The singer, who has died aged 80, was silenced in his home nation for his outspoken criticism – but his artistry played on in the hearts of Iranians at home and abroad
I vividly remember the first time I met Mohammad Reza Shajarian on a summer afternoon in Berlin in 2011. He was touring Europe, along with his daughter Mojgan and an ensemble of young musicians. For Iranians, this was – along with North America – the only place they could experience their great idol on stage, given that the outspoken maestro of Persian classical music had been banned from performing inside Iran two years earlier.
Iranian singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian dies aged 80
Read more
He entered the room with a soft demeanour, a little shy; throughout our interview, Shajarian would speak in a low tone so as not to strain his voice before the concert. I recall listening to his tender and remarkably colloquial Farsi, and being touched by his striking humility, even though he was by far the most popular artist of Persian classical music in our times. His death this week at 80 brings an illustrious career to an end.
I met Shajarian again in 2016, in Konya, Turkey, just a few hundred yards from the mausoleum of the 12th-century Sufi saint Jalaluddin Rumi, of whose poetry Shajarian was – along with the verses of Hafez – one of the finest musical interpreters.
Before his concert to mark Rumi’s birthday, which was to be Shajarian’s last public appearance, he already seemed quite frail. Just months earlier the singer had announced he had had kidney cancer for the past 15 years. Shajarian shared with me his deep appreciation for the love and humanism in Rumi’s poems, which had made him accept the invitation to perform in Konya despite ill health.
- ۹.۴k
- ۱۸ مهر ۱۳۹۹
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