Sergei Babayan

Franz Schubert (1811-1886)

Der Müller und der Bach S. 565 No. 2

Aufenthalt S. 560 No. 3

Auf dem Wasser zu singen S. 558 No. 2

Die Stadt S. 558 No. 11

Gretchen am Spinnrade S. 558 No. 8

Ständchen „Horch! Horch!“ S. 558 No. 9

Erlkönig S. 558 No. 4 (transcr. Franz Liszt)

Robert Schumann (1811-1886)

Liebeslied (Widmung) S. 566 (transcr. Franz Liszt)

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Hymne de la nuit S. 173a/1

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

"Romance" in E Minor S. 169 "O pourquoi donc"

Manuel María Ponce (1882-1948)

Intermezzo No. 1

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

"Where beauty dwells" from Twelve Songs, Op. 21 No. 7 (transcr. Arcadi Volodos)

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

"Melody" from Twelve Songs Op. 21 (transcr. Arcadi Volodos)

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

"Dream" from Six Songs Op. 38 (transcr. Earl Wild)

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)

"Liebesleid" (transcr. Sergei Rachmaninoff)

-Pausa-

Frederic Mompou (1893-1987)

“Cançons i Danses”
Canción No. 6
Canción No. 8
Canción No. 7

Komitas (1869-1935)

Chinar es (transcr. Villy Sargsyan)

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

V Kuusi “The Spruce” from Five pieces for piano, Op. 75

Harold Arlen (1905-1986)

"Over the Rainbow" (transcr. Keith Jarrett)

Leonid Desyatnikov (1955-)

"Red arrowwood, green leaves" from Songs of Bukovina No. 18

Jesús Guridi (1886-1961)

"La carrasquilla" from Danzas viejas

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

"Einleitung und Lied" from Klaviermusik, Op. 37 Pt. 2 "Reihe kleiner Stücke"

Komitas (1869-1935)

Berceuse (transcr. Georgy Saradjian)

Komitas (1869-1935)

1. Semplice from Seven Songs

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Chants du Rhin: I. L'aurore

Stephen Reynolds (1947-)

"Chanson d'automne" from Two Poems in Homage to Fauré

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Improvisation No. 15 in C Minor

"Hommage à Edith Piaf" FP 176

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

"Au bord de l'eau", Op. 8 No. 1 (transcr. Sergei Babayan)

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

"Les chemins de l'amour"

Charles Trenet (1913-2001)

"En avril à Paris" (transcr. Alexis Weissenberg)

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

"Oh lady, be good!"(transcr. Maurice Whitney)

Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)

Arabesken über 'An der schönen blauen Donau' (transcr. Andrey Schulz-Evler)

‘How to write a good melody‘, Sergei Babayan says, ‘is something one cannot learn. It is a gift one either  has or has not. In all study of the art of composition, melody remains the ultimate mysterium.’ – Babayan’s latest  solo recital programme, entitled SONGS, pays homage to the gift of creating some of the most beautiful melodies  in the history of art song. The journey which Babayan proposes to the listener, from Franz Schubert to Charles  Trenet, offers a unique opportunity to reflect upon the ingredients of a great melody and the way in which  modern folk song and art song have evolved over time, both in their original form, with sung words, and as a  transcription for an instrument, a song without words. 

To understand the almost obsessive force that drives Sergei Babayan’s creative process as a pianist, it is  important to emphasize from the outset that his often acclaimed ability ‘to make the piano sing’ is the result of  two key elements: painstakingly meticulous practice, and the profound conviction that all great instrumental  music, whether for piano solo, chamber music ensemble or symphony orchestra, ultimately aims at emulating  the colours, phrasing and dynamics of the human voice. That is why a full programme of songs without words  offers an in-depth exploration of the musical possibilities of the piano per se, rather than a simple abundance of  melodic ‘hits’, an overdose of earworms, a labour of love for songs risking musical hyperglycaemia. 

The songs by Franz Schubert appear as the natural point of departure for this exploratory journey through  Western music. Very subtle modulations, returning changes from major to minor key and an extremely dense  presentation of the melodic material above a subtly diverging accompanying line are characteristics in many  Schubert songs. Liszt’s transcriptions of these songs are fascinating exhibits for Liszt’s generous activism for the  cause of other composers – in the case of the opening of Gretchen am Spinnrade or Die Stadt by pulling to the  forefront the atmospheric wealth allocated by Schubert’s original song to the accompanist’s part, with the  incessant turns of the spinning wheel in the former and the eerie, foggy image of the town on the darkening  horizon, beyond the grey waters, in the latter. In the same sense, Erlkönig is a pianistic masterpiece (and  challenge) even in the original Schubert version for voice, and in Liszt’s breathtaking transcription, becomes the  model for a transcription that remains faithful to the song, all while adding substantial instrumental difficulties  but giving the listener the illusion of hearing from the piano every single word from the original drama of Goethe’s  ballad, as put to music by Schubert. Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Aufenthalt, on the other hand, and the  Ständchen: Horch! Horch! or the highly virtuoso central part of his Gretchen am Spinnrade transcription have  more of a transformation, freely based on the original melodic material, into a pianistic work in its own right that  tests the limits for the sound potential of the instrument. 

Liszt’s orgiastic escalation of the brief yet euphoric melody from Schumann’s Widmung takes this principle  of pianistic freedom to another level, and Babayan uses this as an introduction to a string of melody-driven pieces  for piano by Liszt, Ponce and Rachmaninoff which provide a range of transformatory tools, including an elegic  melodic line above broken chords, overtone effects, right-hand octaves and mid-song transpositions by an  octave, parallel runs. These examples culminate in a seemingly simple waltz by Fritz Kreisler, presented in a  stunning arrangement by Rachmaninoff himself, who used the ever-so-slightly asynchronous limping of his  instrument to pay humourous tribute to the otherwise inimitable Viennese violinist. 

Turning to the melody-driven works of the Catalan Frederic Mompou, the Basque Jesús Guridi, the  Armenian Komitas and the Finn Sibelius, Sergei Babayan lays out a world of song before the listener that  transcends the tonal territory of Central European art song. Equally, Leonid Desyatnikov, born in 1955 in Kharkiv,  contributes a Bukovina song in a transcription that is a complex pianistic composition based on the oldest,  seemingly simple folk song tradition. Komitas, who became the first non-European member of the International  Musical Society in Berlin, earned his epithet as Armenia’s ‘national’ composer with his double role as a priest  rooted in Armenian polyphonic churchsong and the work as this ancient nation’s first musicologist, who collected  thousands of folk songs and made many of them accessible for transcriptions for Western instruments for the  first time. It is the tonal atmosphere, unfamiliar to the Western ear, that helps to focus on the inner qualities of  melody in the music of Komitas, whose work was of evident influence on Sergei Babayan as a pianist born and  raised in Armenia.

That the quality of the pianistic presentation of a melody is not related to its ‘singability’, the earworm  character of a musical phrase that sticks, also results from the melodic (tonal or a-tonal) works of composers like Schoenberg. Hindemith’s little Lied is another example that seems almost abstract in its limping turns and  melodic ups and downs. From this level of abstraction, a direct line takes the listener to the ‘tension and release’  principle that guides the arrangement of melodies in jazz, playing outside and inside the ‘right’ notes: Keith  Jarrett, trained in classical composition and performance, created transcriptions for the piano that stand on the  shoulders of Liszt and Rachmaninoff, while working with seemingly lighter folk song and film music material. 

In the 20th century, a solitary approach to the ‘labour of love’ for song can be found in Poulenc’s piano  improvisation Hommage à Edith Piaf: The material is not based on a specific song by the legendary ‘sparrow of  Paris’ but on the melancholic atmosphere of many of her songs, her characteristic voice and her extraordinary  life. The ‘labour of love’ idea is ultimately highlighted in pianistic masterpieces of the greatest virtuoso qualities,  as in Alexis Weissenberg’s arrangement of Charles Trenet’s immortal song En avril à Paris and the Polish pianist  and composer Adolf Schulze-Evler’s delicate, subtly ‘off’ and brilliant Arabesques on ‘An der schönen blauen  Donau’, best interpreted, with their ‘wrong’ notes reminding of both jazz and the slightly ‘impure’ cues in  Viennese waltz, by pianistic legends of the old age such as Josef Lhévinne and Jan Smeterlin. 

A footnote leading beyond this recital programme: Would it come as a surprise to the listener if the SONGS  programme proposed by Sergei Babayan were, like virtually each of his programmes, a discrete tribute to the  greatest composers of all, unrelated as he might seem to the world of song: The greatest creator of melodies of  all time, Johann Sebastian Bach?

© Dr Marcus Felsner, 2024