Sergei Babayan-stunning technique!

[sevencircles]

I heard him play Vines and Ligeti and he seems to be one the greatest technical players of all time if the recordings aren´t speed up or edited.

Have you heard him?

[arensky]

 I have his Scarlatti disc, he's one of the best Scarlatti players I've ever heard. Amazing. I would love to hear him live.

[jre58591]

his vine sonata sounds like computer blips. so effing fast, it scares the mierda out of me. his messiaen is very good also. it almost rivals steven osborne's recording of the complete cycle of the vingt regards sur l'enfant jesus.

[sevencircles]

Anyone know  if he can play the Vines Sonata like that live, too?

[astroboy]

omg! I've met Sergei Babayan! He was one of the artists that was featured in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music this year. He is a fantastic performer, I didn't watch all the concerts that he appeared in, but one that stood out was when he played the Brahms g minor piano quartet. It was sublime. Anyways, I sat in on a masterclass that he gave and it was really insightful, I should have taken notes, and he was going to give my piano trio a masterclass but it didnt happen in the end. He also kicked me out of a practice room twice cos he had to practice. Well theres my claim to fame lol. He is excellent.

[nick]

omg! I've met Sergei Babayan! He was one of the artists that was featured in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music this year. He is a fantastic performer, I didn't watch all the concerts that he appeared in, but one that stood out was when he played the Brahms g minor piano quartet. It was sublime. Anyways, I sat in on a masterclass that he gave and it was really insightful, I should have taken notes, and he was going to give my piano trio a masterclass but it didnt happen in the end. He also kicked me out of a practice room twice cos he had to practice. Well theres my claim to fame lol. He is excellent.

Can you share some of his masterclass ideas?
Thanks!

Nick

[sevencircles]

omg! I've met Sergei Babayan! He was one of the artists that was featured in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music this year. He is a fantastic performer,

Did he play Vine or Ligeti or any other music meant for the supervirtuosos only?

[astroboy]

He didn't play Vine or Ligeti but he played Brahms g minor quartet (which i mentioned), Shostakovich piano quinet, Mozart piano concerto no. 9, and a few 'new' compositions.

I was stupid not to take notes when he gave his masterclass, because I attended quite a few masterclasses and was bombarded with a whole bunch of ideas. I think the main things I can remember were being aware of the emotional attachment between each note/interval, and thats all i can remember, sorry for being not much help haha!

[sevencircles]

I think the main things I can remember were being aware of the emotional attachment between each note/interval,

Funny statement since he sounded almost like a player piano when he played the Vine sonata.

I assume that he though it fitted the piece.

[m]

Anyone know  if he can play the Vines Sonata like that live, too?

Long gone thread, but in any case if one is still wondering yes, I heard him life and yes, that's the way he plays it in real life.

Best, M

[sevencircles]

Long gone thread, but in any case if one is still wondering yes, I heard him life and yes, that's the way he plays it in real life.

What other works did he play when you saw him?

Is his repertoire small or can he play many other supervirtuoso pieces?

[m]

What other works did he play when you saw him?

Is his repertoire small or can he play many other supervirtuoso pieces?

His repertoire is HUGE--anything from Goldberg Variations to Penderecky Concerto.
He has 45 piano concerti ready to play any day.

[sevencircles]

His repertoire is HUGE--anything from Goldberg Variations to Penderecky Concerto.
He has 45 piano concerti ready to play any day.

Amazing seems like you can call him one the greatest technical pianists of all time.

Do you think so too?

[m]

Amazing seems like you can call him one the greatest technical pianists of all time.

Do you think so too?

Here I am a little biased, as we have been friends for many years--since time when both of us were students. He is a truly wonderful person to be around.

I would not call him technical pianist. Yes, he always had great technique with amazing pianistic facilities, and always was a great master, but for him music is much more important and he is rather a musician, interpretator, thinker, experimentator, than some flashy player (at least how I understand "technical pianist").

BTW, his Bach Goldberg Variations is absolutely wonderful.   

Best, M

[sevencircles]

I would not call him technical pianist. Yes, he always had great technique with amazing pianistic facilities, and always was a great master, but for him music is much more important and he is rather a musician, interpretator, thinker, experimentator, than some flashy player (at least how I understand "technical pianist").

Not a technical pianist? i assume that most of the works he plays are non-virtuoso pieces if his repertoire is so huge.

[m]

Not a technical pianist? i assume that most of the works he plays are non-virtuoso pieces if his repertoire is so huge.

No need to assume. He plays a lot of virtuosic stuff and as I wrote earlier, his technique is pretty amazing.

Best, M

[arensky]

I have his Scarlatti disc, he's one of the best Scarlatti players I've ever heard. Amazing. I would love to hear him live.

I finally heard him in January; he played the Goldbergs and several Etudes-Tableaux of Rachmaninov. He was as good as I expected, if not better. An amazing pianist.

[thalberg]

I went to school at the Cleveland Institute.  Many, many of my friends studied with him.  I sat next to him for some performances at the Cleveland piano competition---he was nice to me.  I also heard him play the Rach 3 live at Severance Hall in Cleveland, and I heard him play the Liszt B minor sonata at my school.  I heard him play some chamber music, too.

He elicits fanatical devotion from people and from his students especially.  There's some kind of aura.

After all the glowing reviews on this board, I am ashamed to say I thought his playing had lots of problems...but perhaps it was just this specific repertoire.  Lots of big mistakes, sloppiness, and even a passage in the Rachmaninoff that didn't come out at all....

[m]

After all the glowing reviews on this board, I am ashamed to say I thought his playing had lots of problems...but perhaps it was just this specific repertoire.  Lots of big mistakes, sloppiness, and even a passage in the Rachmaninoff that didn't come out at all....

What can I say? Nothing to be ashamed of.
Sh*t happens.
I myself witnessed when Gilels was playing Waldstein and desperately could not get his hands playing together sixteenths.
I myself witnessed when Gilels was playing Schumann Symphonic Etudes, when there was literally no one single page without a few mistakes, including some terrible memory slips. I am not even talking about one of his Brahms-Paganini rendition  .

I myself witnessed G. Sokolov completely screwing up Chopin Etude Op.25/11 (for a record, when Sokolov is in shape, nobody in the word has EVER played this etude like him).

Friend of mine has witnessed Richter playing HammerKlavier.
Richter started, the concert, got through first couple pages, forgot and stopped. After a half a minute of torturing pause he got up and went backstage. In ten minutes the concert was cancelled.

Or look at the Horowitz's Japan tour...

I guess, the real artists should be judged by their achievments, and not by their failures.

Best, M

[sevencircles]

Someone on this Forum saw Hamelin live fairly recenly and he got so lost when playing one of Godowsky´s Chopin Studies that he had to start all over from the beginning.

Even Michelangeli made mistakes too.