The name of Armenian composer, Babajanian is seen in various variant
spellings including
Babazhanian and
Babadjanian. This is
useful to know if you are searching for other references within this site. I
first encountered his music through two pieces on an
ASV CD which lead with the Tjeknavorian piano concerto. The
Heroic
Ballad with its genuinely joyful 'strut' and OTT cinematic romance
definitely falls into the ‘guilty pleasures’ category. The
Nocturne was far too civilised for its own good - more Yerevan Hilton
than nights in an Armenian mountain garden.
The present collection is a valuable reminder of the breadth of
invention borne of Soviet satellite state composers and of Babajanian in
particular. The early
Polyphonic Sonata encases a central movement
that revels in the sort of Armenian sway we know from Khachaturian and a
surreal drifting dissonance. The outer movements are tartly dissonant,
pianola wild and with a dash of motoric jazz redolent of Kapustin. The
Six Pictures from 1965 comprise:
Improvisation;
Folk
Song;
Toccatina;
Intermezzo;
Chorale and
Sassoun
Dance. The music is full of unruly life: cut-glass, vinegary jazz,
shrapnel flying, uneasy peace and uncomfortable dreams, gawky, rushing and
unwaveringly purposeful. The
Melody and Humoresque: the first is
sentimental and very moving with a typically Armenian oriental twist while
the Humoresque again draws on that sinuous romantic way, coupled with an
unblinking ruthless determination. The 1978
Elegy is “cocktail
bar” sentimental with invention familiar from the middle movement of
any of the Khachaturian concertos.
Vagharshapat is a dancing piece:
very sharply angular yet with Rachmaninovian grandeur. The
Capriccio
radiates affection amid those by now familiar middle-eastern accents. The
Poem of 1966 is harshly dissonant - with notes crunching and
colliding. Its starrily glimmering desolation tickles the ear before, in the
final pages, it sprints off like a pianola gone berserk with freedom.
Babajanian studied at the Yerevan Conservatory before attending
Moscow’s Gnessin Music School for composition lessons with Vissarion
Shebalin. On his return to Yerevan he joined the teaching staff of the
Conservatory. There are concertos, one each, for piano, violin and cello.
Some of these have been recorded on Melodiya. I wonder if any of you have
copies of these?
Here is more extremely good and fulfilling work done by Grand Piano
with a well documented and recorded recital played to the manner born by
Hayk Melikyan. Can we hope that they will embark on a piano series for the
“English Rachmaninov” Reginald Sacheverell Coke or that other
great yet promising English unknown Walter Stanley Gaze Cooper?
Rob Barnett
