March 7, 2010- THE PLAIN DEALER
Acclaimed pianist, historic Blüthner piano join Apollo's Fire 'Mozart Celebration'
by Donald Rosenberg

Playing Mozart piano concertos has never been anything but a thrill for Sergei Babayan.

The admired Armenian-born pianist, an award-winning faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, considers these works to be among the most transcendent in the classical repertoire.

But Babayan is holding his keyboard breath at the moment. This week, he'll perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, not on a modern Steinway grand, one of his preferred instruments, but on a Bluthner piano made in Leipzig, Germany, in 1877.

"It's a scary experience," Babayan said recently between sips of tea. "It's fear of the unknown. At the first rehearsal, we'll find out."

The "we" also refers to Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, and music director Jeannette Sorrell, with whom Babayan will collaborate during a "Mozart Celebration" at three area venues, including Severance Hall.

Severance was the site of Apollo's Fire's 10th-anniversary Mozart program in 2002, when John Gibbons played the Piano Concerto No. 20 on fortepiano, an 18th-century precursor to the larger pianoforte (so called for the ability to play soft -- piano -- and loud -- forte).

Mozart's concertos initially were performed in small theaters, where the dulcet fortepiano would have been the ideal instrument. At the 2,000-seat Severance in 2002, listeners could hardly hear the soloist.

So when Sorrell invited Babayan to perform Mozart with Apollo's Fire this season, they knew they'd have to find a piano that would complement, but not overwhelm, the period-instrument orchestra. A modern grand, such as the variety Babayan usually plays, would be out of the question.

The search for the right instrument frustrated Babayan until he was directed to the Frederick Historic Piano Collection in Ashburnham, Mass.

On display at the collection, owned by Edmund Michael Frederick and Patricia Humphrey Frederick, are 24 instruments dating from the 1790s to 1907 by such eminent piano makers as Bluthner, Bosendorfer, Broadwood, Chickering, Clementi, Erard and Pleyel. They are the types of instruments for which great composers of their time wrote immortal works -- and may have played.

Given the delicacy of the pianos and chancy climatic conditions, the Fredericks rarely allow their instruments to leave the small town of Ashburnham. But several things changed their minds, including a recommendation from Joel Katzman, a harpsichord maker in Amsterdam, who knows Sorrell.

"Joel can be very severe in his judgment," said Edmund Frederick, a harpsichord builder, player and former East Asian history professor who was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio. "But he gave her an A-1 rating. He said she is a wonderful musician and a very decent person. I was predisposed in her favor."

Babayan sealed the deal when he played the Fredericks' pianos. He began the adventure on a 1907 Bluthner similar to one Debussy owned and continued on instruments that would have been familiar to Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Brahms and other celebrated figures.

The experience proved revelatory. Babayan, who won first prize at the 1989 Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (predecessor of the Cleveland International Piano Competition), realized that these instruments made playing music of the era much easier and more logical, if not necessarily more "authentic," a word both he and Sorrell regard with suspicion.

"The style is not in the instrument," said Babayan. "It's in your heart, your mind, your soul. Any instrument is OK if you know the style."
Going into the process, Babayan vowed that the instrument for the Apollo's Fire concerts would be "singing, intimate and not metallic." After testing out the Fredericks' treasures, he chose an 1877 instrument from the firm Julius Bluthner founded in 1853. The company still produces superb pianos.

"What made me choose the instrument?" Babayan said. "Whether you can play anything in piano and pianissimo," meaning soft or softer. "You can hypnotize the audience only with piano and pianissimo. You don't need a ringing, big sound."

For Sorrell, the main issues were audibility and interaction.

"Some people have unrealistic expectations of what balances in Mozart piano concertos should be," she said. "Piano and orchestra are equal voices. They defer to one another at times. The piano does not need to be 100 percent louder than the orchestra."

Which is one reason Sorrell asked Babayan to perform this week. They first teamed several years ago on a Mozart concerto at CIM, where she was impressed with his ability to draw a spectrum of nuances.

"The palette of colors he evokes from a piano is matched only by the likes of Murray Perahia and perhaps a handful of others in the world," she said. "For me, that kind of musicality is what playing the piano is all about."

Babayan's musicality promises to be in full glory on the 1877 Bluthner, which the Fredericks are loaning to Apollo's Fire free of charge. In turn, the orchestra is paying all moving expenses and will make a donation to the collection.

Although both Sorrell and Babayan are on "pins and needles," as the conductor put it, as they approach this week's experience, they're likely to settle down once piano meets orchestra. In fact, Patricia Frederick said a number of pianists have dubbed the instrument "my dear Bluthner."

"Another said, 'I love, love, love this piano,' " she said. "Another went home after practicing on it and told his sister that he had just been using the most beautiful instrument in the world."

Decide for yourself. This week, the Bluthner comes to a concert hall near you.

*Note, the Blüthner piano discussed in this article has developed technical problems and will be replaced by a specially-chosen light and transparent Steinway concert grand, courtesy of Steinway Hall in Akron.