Sergeï Babayan’s concert at the Bach Festival on Thursday was eagerly awaited, with a second piano marathon after the Partitas by Martin Helmchen, Sunday. This time, the result was much more conclusive.
Sergeï Babayan saw his execution of Well-tempered keyboard at the United Church of St. James as a sort of ritual. The church was pitch black. From the red spotlights placed under the piano, a single small light illuminated the pianist’s face and the keyboard. The only thing not really planned was the triggering of compressor-type noises on the right of the church in 8th and 19th Prelude and Fugue as well as some unwanted noises during the concert due to the fact that small glass bottles containing welcome messages from the Festival were spilled on the wooden benches. But the public deserves a big hat for their silence and respect.
Romantic and contrasting
From the 2nd of the 24 preludes, Sergeï Babayan sets the tone for the evening: it will be a Bach with aplomb, stature and spice. He stands out in this from the interpretation of a great specialist, András Schiff (ECM), more “round”, more cast. Babayan relies more on contrasts.
We could qualify it as “romantic” insofar as it is evocative through these exacerbated contrasts which intrinsically give character to the preludes and fugues. But fortunately he does not “romanticize” Bach by forcing the expression.
Many very interesting characteristics are to be noted. It was obviously fascinating to scrutinize the way Babayan was going to treat the instrument compared to Martin Helmchen, who had deprived himself of the pedals to wear out only his fingers. Babayan (obviously) does not fall into this dead end and by a skilful use of the pedals obtains a sound neither too dry nor too resonant.
In The well-tempered keyboard, as in Goldberg variations moreover, the way in which the pianist guides us through the twists and turns of counterpoint is very important. There was, for a time, a fashion to “pound” the counterpoint in order to make the sentences stand out. None of that, fortunately, Thursday. Besides, contrapuntal casting goes hand in hand with musical casting and it is in the balance and equality of flows that Bach can exercise his fascination. It did.
The unity of the subject was accentuated by very studied sequences, obviously between the preludes and the fugues, but also and especially between the fugues and the subsequent preludes, as if to immerse the listener instantly from one atmosphere to another. We will cite as an example the 8th Prelude and fugue, made very serious and dense by Babayan, chained as in a unitary breath to the 9th Prelude softened, like on a cloud.
Great evening, obviously, even if in the last fugue one felt that the task had ended up being titanic.