His music is dominated by Azerbaijan folk melodies, presented in a brash, at times bombastic manner. Think Ippolitov-Ivanov meets John Williams. According to the program notes by Anastasia Belina, all of this music is centered on an ancient folk form called mugam. These are typically played in trios, with a vocalist, and rely on improvisation and long rhapsodic melodic lines. The modality of the music gives it a distinctly Asian flavor. Belina also credits Amirov with being the first Azerbaijan composer to blend folk and classical styles, a practice that has since had many practitioners...It is fun to listen to, and unique in its way...it certainly adds another chapter to the huge volume of classical music inspired by folk music.

The performances here are pretty much the best available. Leopold Stokowski introduced most of us to Amirov with his Everest recording of Kyurdi Ovshari, a couple of minutes quicker than this one. Of the two other recordings of this work (and some of the others), the one on Olympia is rather droopy, while Antonio de Almeida on ASV is aptly lively, but his Moscow Symphony isn’t as good an ensemble as the Russian Philharmonic. Dmitry Yablonsky (a scary picture of whom appears in the CD booklet), seems to get the tempos just right. He’s exciting in the quick bits and lusciously romantic in the big tunes. The engineering is also very good. Very enjoyable indeed.