Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
KATRINA BISSETT
STAFF WRITER
On Wednesday, March 9, the Armenian Studies Program and the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concert Series once again joined forces to bring a fantastic gift to the people of Fresno. Professor Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Director of the Armenian Studies Program, and Professor Andreas Werz, Artistic Director of the Keyboard Concert Series, have collaborated many times in the past to bring world-class musicians such as Vardan Mamikonian, Şahan Arzruni, and the Khachaturian Trio to the Keyboard Concert Series. This season, their collaboration brought internationally renowned pianist Sergei Babayan.
Babayan regularly performs across Europe and the United States and performed in the Keyboard Concert Series once before in 2014. Babayan is the artist-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1992, and since 2014, he has been on the faculty at the Juilliard School.
Babayan’s concert spanned a variety of pieces. The first half of the program included works from a wide range of musical styles, from “Vallée d’Obermann,” composed by the classical era’s Franz Liszt, to “Melodiya,” a piece composed by contemporary Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos. Babayan’s playing style clearly displayed his passion for the music and a subtle sense of showmanship that comes from years of public performance. He revealed excellent versatility to the audience, beginning with compositions by Liszt, filled with melancholy and quiet rage, then moving to Robert Schumann’s “Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck in F Minor,” which called for a delicate balance of intricate passages and nearly overwhelming emotion.
The second half of the recital consisted completely of the works of J.S. Bach. Babayan performed the twelve preludes from Book 1 of Bach’s Twelve Preludes and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier. The Twelve Preludes were particularly enjoyable, as Babayan seemed to perfectly encapsulate the sonority of Bach’s work, as well as the playful, experimental spirit that accompanied the creation of the work after the invention of the well-tempered clavier. This program was a special treat as Babayan himself finds great joy and love in the music of Bach. He expressed great reverence for the impressions found in the music, saying, “Bach gives you inner peace… it combines the earthly with the spiritual, the heavenly.” It was apparent through his playing that these are not empty words; it did indeed seem that the divine and the earthly were mixing in the concert hall.
After the concert, audience members described the performance as “wonderfully varied,” with the pieces “beautifully interpreted.”
Sergei Babayan is a performer and an educator at the highest level, whose love for his craft compels the audience to love it as well.