{"id":2816,"date":"2023-11-03T02:10:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T06:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2023-11-05T10:48:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T15:48:23","slug":"a-great-present-day-pianist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/11\/a-great-present-day-pianist.html","title":{"rendered":"A Great Present-Day Pianist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When I reminisce with pianists of my generation (born 1948), the perennial topic is Great Pianists of the Past. We tediously agree: in those days, famous pianists were great pianists \u2013 with their own sound, their own distinctive musical personality projecting into the far reaches of Carnegie Hall. No one could admire equally Arrau, Horowitz, Serkin, Michelangeli, Richter, Gilels, Rubinstein. But in every case: famous for a reason. The same conversation inevitably leads to grousing about today, when fame and stature do not correlate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However \u2013 there is one pianist of my acquaintance who credibly insists that there are Great Pianists of the Present. They simply happen not to be Famous Pianists. Sergei Babayan<\/a><\/strong> is such a pianist.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I heard him in Tbilisi last June, he played the Bach\/Busoni Chaconne followed by Bach\u2019s Goldberg<\/em>Variations. At Zankel Hall recital tonight, his program included Liszt, Schubert\/Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babayan in recital is an integrated whole. Physically, he somewhat resembles Arrau, Rubinstein, Gilels \u2013 big torso, big hands, short arms and legs. He is one with the piano; the instrument is part of him. He relies on arm and shoulder weight to deeply depress the keys. His sonority is full-bodied and dark. His whispered pianissimos retain body and shape. His fortissimos are plushly upholstered. He does not have to bang. His musical intelligence is probing and informative. He is fearlessly improvisatory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armenian born, he trained in Russia. His lineage includes Vladimir Sofronitzky, who taught Babayan\u2019s teacher Georgy Saradjev. Sofronitzky was a terrifying Scriabin specialist. His live recordings of Schubert songs in Liszt\u2019s transcriptions are memorably authentic. I perhaps detect the influence of Sofronitzky in the Schubert\/Liszt set Babayan performed at Zankel. The transcriptions themselves are a phenomenal labor of love (Liszt was extolling songs as yet unknown) informed by love for the keyboard \u2013 a conversation between complementary geniuses. Liszt\u2019s retelling of these songs peaks where Schubert is visionary. Transcribing \u201cSchwanengesang,\u201d he tellingly begins not amiably, with \u201cLiebesbotschaft\u201d (as in the published song cycle), but with \u201cDie Stadt\u201d \u2013 in which Heinrich Heine evokes a dank and morbid seascape. Liszt\u2019s mastery of the piano\u2019s resources here leads to extremities of virtuosity that the capacious song absorbs and fortifies. Babayan\u2019s rendition was a chilling exercise in musical and emotional imagination \u2013 as memorable as Sofronitzky\u2019s live recording<\/a><\/strong>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babayan\u2019s Rachmaninoff set began with the Etude-tableau in E-flat minor, Op. 39, No. 5 \u2013 commonly, a fat tune atop pounding chords.  Babayan\u2019s reading was a study in texture and sonority \u2013 fresher and more spontaneous than his DG recording (which I just sampled on youtube). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program also included a 1983 Fantasia, by Vladimir Ryabov, in memory of Maria Yudina. She, too, was a pianist who took no prisoners. In fact, every one of Babayan\u2019s readings at Zankel bristled with surprises. Nothing was predictable, save the mastery of his pianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am grateful that he is not a brand name. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I reminisce with pianists of my generation (born 1948), the perennial topic is Great Pianists of the Past. We tediously agree: in those days, famous pianists were great pianists \u2013 with their own sound, their own distinctive musical personality projecting into the far reaches of Carnegie Hall. No one could admire equally Arrau, Horowitz, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Jq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2825,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}