The great disappointment for the organizers of the Bach Festival, the cancellation of the arrival of Sergeï Babayan, struggling with one of the viruses of the times, turned into a happy discovery and a concert which will mark this 2023 edition in checkered form .
It was during the day on Tuesday that the sky fell on the head of the Bach Festival. The most popular concert, the first to sell out, the Sergeï Babayan recital, was jeopardized by the pianist’s cancellation due to health reasons. The Festival thus came across a 31-year-old pianist of Georgian origin, Nicolas Namoradze, winner in 2018 of the Honens competition in Banff, succeeding Pavel Kolesnikov and Luca Buratto.
Focus from the start
The pickaxe was happy, very happy. This pianist who arrived in Montreal at the last minute delivered an admirable recital. The evening began with a very original moment, a musical reflection by Namoradze on the famous Melody op. 4 No. 4 by Rachmaninoff, “Don’t sing, my beauty”. It is in no way a transcription, but a fractal rereading, where the theme appears very furtively, implicitly, framed in what could be a stellar dusting. Through this play of tracks, these strange textures and these infinitesimal nuances, Namoradze mobilizes our concentration and at the same time demonstrates that he is a pianist of touch.
What follows is a triptych made up of a counterpoint by Bach and a study by Ligeti, leading to the 1st French Suite by Bach. Namoradze is not one of those who ape the harpsichord while playing the piano. He uses the piano in Bach in all its palette, dynamics and resonance, and attributes expressive virtues to the different pieces. The opening Allemande is played with particular softness and the Minuet I is very delicate, in no way chanted. Between them, the Courante has a strong build and the Sarabande is expressively supported, like a kind of prayer.
Namoradze closes Part 1 with a transcription of the slow movement of the 2nd Symphony by Rachmaninov. It escapes very well from the trap posed by the movement: the recurrence of the theme takes on very varied aspects in the accompaniments and figurations, which avoids leading to a form of weariness.
A sonata as an encore
After such a solid first half of the concert, we were confident of discovering the pianist in the formidable Sonata D. 960 by Schubert. He was indeed very convincing, particularly in the concentration of a perfectly balanced 2nd movement, in front of an audience with exceptional listening quality. In the first part, Namoradze still deploys, as it were, “pianic oratorical effects”, pressing or accelerating a little here or there, but within the limits of reason and good taste. All this remains very beautiful because we have everywhere a cultivated pianist with this very beautiful touch and an intelligent way of leading phrases. The tone of the last two movements is perfectly on point.
Completely delighted to play on this new instrument, decidedly exceptional, from the Bourgie Hall, Nicolas Namoradze offered three opulent encores: a Study by Scriabin, the 4th Sonata by Scriabin (formidable too!) and the 1st Gymnopedia by Satie with control of sound, time and the extinction of notes which very well characterized his art which we were happy to discover.