Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan: two pianos, four hands and a concert between friends

Martha Argerich and the Armenian-American pianist Sergei Babayan they walked out onto the stage hand in hand and kissed her forehead. The emotional bond between the two was immediately perceived at the fifth concert of the Argerich Festival at the Teatro Colón and was projected into the music.

Each sat on a piano: Martha, with the tail of her piano to the left; Babayan is to the right and forward. The arrangement favored a stereo sound and enhanced the sound effects the pianist created in each of his vivid transcriptions of Sergei Prokofiev’s orchestral music.

Except the Sonata by Mozart for two pianos, the rest of the program consisted of transcriptions by the Russian composer, a genre that had its peak in the nineteenth century but has managed to survive today.

Babayan’s style

Armenian-American pianist it goes beyond the recreation of the musical content of the original workestablishes a more than interesting dialogue of music on music: a piano reconstruction of Prokofiev’s orchestral music that recreates a dense sound, exploits the theatricality of some instrumental passages and allows the piano to appropriate the sounds of an orchestra.

Babayan’s musical fantasy has the language of piano idiosyncrasies, its superlatives, but above all, is inspired by the resources that the piano wizard Argerich can provide: variety of color tones and massive effects, very wide dynamic ranges, a powerful stroke but with a light and flexible touch.

The night began without delay with the powerful chords of the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, Suite in twelve movements. The pianist’s transcription retains some of the movements that Prokofiev arranged in his Op. 75, ma does not follow the order of the full scorenor of the orchestral suites or the piano suites only that the Russian composer later created.

Babayan’s set of twelve movements did that own dramatic structurewith an interesting extension of the sound palette for two pianos.

In the Preface and the The death of Tybaltdefinitive number of the work, lThe performance emphasized the ferocity of the music. But there was also the most exquisite contrast in the delicate passages of the enchanting Gavotte or morning serenade, which sounded subtle and charming. The joints couldn’t have been more synchronous and sharper.

Intense and moving sounded the farewell of lovers, Romeo and Juliet before leaving, the emotional climax of the Suite.

Synergy and naturalness between two virtuosos

Not from the moment of the duet with Nelson Freire did you feel such an intense synergy between Argerich and another pianist. Everything flows between them with surprising naturalness.

After a long interval – it took some time to fix Babayan’s piano which sounded out of tune, particularly in the high register, but managed to improve a little after the technical intervention – the duo returned to the stage and played, maintaining the same positions in the pianos, the Sonata K448 by Mozart.

Without the help of sight, hard to tell which pianist was playing whichthe exchange was so fluid between the two, with such poise and balance, as if it were an intimate conversation between friends.

The duo changed positions and Argerich took the first part in the stage music for Fraction Y Eugenio Onegin, the queen of spades and the opera War and peaceall written by Prokofiev in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The pianist achieved in his vibrant transcription of the the ghost of the father from Fraction a dense and disturbing sound that gave the opera’s dark tone (il turn the page brought his own tension to work by turning pages at the wrong time).

In the rhythms of the various dance movements that complete the program –Mazurka Y Polka of the scene music by Eugenio Onegin, il Polish from the queen of spades or the waltz n. 2 from Pushkin’s two waltzes: the rhythmic thrust of the duet sometimes maintained a fluctuating tempo with an extraordinary swing.

the waltz of War and peace it sounded great like obsession solution of the idea (fixed idea) of the queen of spades. The particular bond between the two was from end to end throughout the concert.

After thunderous applause and applause, as if the two had not given their all, he returned with the Barcarolle from Suite n. 1 op. 15 by Rachmaninov and continued to do magic.

File

Argerich Festival: Piano Duo

Qualification: Excellent

interpreters: Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan Repertoire: Selection of works by Sergei Prokofiev (transcriptions by Sergei Babayan) e Sonata for two pianos in D major, K488 by Mozart Theater: Columbus, Tuesday, August 16

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