Babayan: The Unfathomable Mysteries of Interpretive Genius
Sergei Babayan returned to the Bach Festival of Montreal with an unlikely programme - his irresistible voyage into the history of song and the singing piano, introduced and concluded by one of the greatest melodies ever composed by man, the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Christophe Huss, legendary critic and author of Quebec’s Le Dévoir, wrote a detailed review, which we present in translated excerpts (for the full version in French, click here):
“Babayan and the Timeless Grandeur of Music”
“Sergei Babayan was the guest of the Bach Festival on Thursday night, presenting a recital at Bourgie Hall under the sign of pianistic vocality. This original timeless recital made us touch the most unfathomable mysteries of interpretive genius. (…)
A bygone world
Hearing this kind of ceremonial entitled 'The Singing Piano, from Bach to Gershwin', one had the impression of being transported back to the end of the nineteenth century, the great era of pianist transcribers, such as Leopold Godowsky, who could do everything with a keyboard or a musical text.
The sensation was above all that of another time, of a bygone past. Obviously, for those who have heard him, we always think a little of Claudio Arrau when we try to describe the imposing figure of Sergei Babayan at the keyboard and to define his sound. He is a very special pianist, who literally manages to make the instrument roar or rumble (Schubert's Die Stadt or Erlkönig transcribed by Liszt) without ever 'tapping' or 'banging'. The phenomenon is very impressive.
“If the whole world cannot hear this recital, cannot know that the piano can be THAT, how can these listeners forge an aesthetic framework, values and references?”
Babayan brings us back to sound, to sound emotions, (…), as well as to the transcendent art of transitions between pieces and vocality. The resonance gives rise to the impetus for the following melody, notably in the Rachmaninoff triptych in the first part or, in the second, the succession of Hindemith's Einleitung und Lied, Komitas' Semplice and Stephen Reynolds' Autumn Song, to the point where it is no longer clear which belongs to which composer.
Controversy
This concert comes at the right time, at the end of a rather strange year for the piano, completely turned upside down by an event that should have been happy and festive and which seems to have demagnetized the compasses. Indeed, the discussions and contestations of the results of the Chopin Competition have opened up many debates on the internet and social media, on what could be defined as a kind of 'internationalization of sterile perfection'. (…)
© Marco Borggreve
A concert by Babayan sets the record straight, and very precisely so. In fact, there has never been a problem. There have never been as many pianists as there are today and, floating above this mass, the artistic greatness is immediately palpable, (…). When the latter follows up at the beginning of the concert, the Aria from Goldberg Variations with Schubert's Der Müller und der Bach, we are simply disarmed, emotionally laid bare. And even if there is not a word, Babayan manages to 'speak with his fingers' at every moment, in Gretchen am Spinnrade, Erlkönig (what fear! What death!) or Poulenc's Les chemins de l'amour towards the end of the recital.
Resignation
If Babayan sets the record straight compared to the poor man's social media philosophers, it is because he puts his finger on the real problem, accentuated after the pandemic: the loss of references.
The loss of references is not only due to artist agencies that want to forge fashions and trends rather than promote true artistic quality, it is above all the hallucinatory discomfiture of what were still called the 'majors labels' a few years ago. (…) Obviously, the programme of this concert would make a dazzling record. Now, if the whole world cannot hear this recital, cannot know that the piano can be that, how can these listeners forge an aesthetic framework, values and references? (…)
It doesn't matter if educational institutions train more excellent pianists, award-winning or not. Within the concert market, music lovers ready to pay the price to hear this or that artist will sort it out. It is to be hoped that there will remain music journalists to help music lovers make informed choices and concert organizers who are not subservient to agencies, to invite valuable artists. (…)
The pianist was generous in presenting a very original programme with which he was able to keep the audience on the edge of their seats (35 pieces and only 3 blocks of applause). Obviously, starting with the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, he landed on his feet at the end, playing the Aria once again, without repeats, as an encore. It was, once again, a fascinating experience (…): a different kind of listening, in search of peace, enriched by the path imposed by this pianistic genius.”