March 2, 2010 - HEIGHTS OBSERVER
Simpatico Musicians Unite for Mozart Celebration!
Artistic Collaboration Culminates at Severance Hall
by Margi Griebling-Haigh

Last winter, Jeannette Sorrell, founder and director of Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, drove down the hill from her Cleveland Heights home to conduct an all-Mozart concert at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  The soloist that evening, along with the student orchestra, was acclaimed pianist and faculty member Sergei Babayan.

It was a special night.  “The subtlety, gesture, and blend that Jeannette drew from the ensemble were amazing” remembers Sian Ricketts, a student oboist who took part in the concert. “Sorrell is an outstanding Mozartian”, confirm the experts at Fanfare record magazine.

Also special was the collaboration between Sorrell and Babayan.  They had never met, but in working on the Mozart they instantly forged a delightful musical connection - the kind of immediate deep friendship which only music seems able to bring about.  So when Apollo’s Fire decided to return to Severance Hall for its upcoming Mozart celebration, Sorrell knew exactly who the piano soloist should be.  “Sergei is the kind of sensitive and creative musician that we love working with,” she said. 

Though Sorrell has conducted Mozart with several modern-instrument orchestras, she does not often get to do her “absolute favorite thing,” which is to conduct Mozart with her period- instrument ensemble Apollo’s Fire.  “When we do Mozart in Apollo’s Fire, it’s a special event,” the curly-headed conductor said in an interview while walking her dog through the Coventry area.  “We only do Mozart about once every two or three years, because it involves assembling 35 period instrumentalists from all over the country.  It’s an expensive project, but incredibly exciting for all of us involved.”

No stranger to Mozart, Babayan has been acclaimed for the immediacy, sensitivity and depth of his interpretations, particularly in the repertoire of Bach and Mozart.  He has been Artist-in-Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1995, having caught the attention of Cleveland audiences as first prize winner in the 1989 Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition. With top prizes from three other international competitions as well, he has performed in major halls on six continents. His New York recitals at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and performances with such ensembles as The Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and Detroit Symphony have been met with huge critical acclaim.

Yet Babayan has never actually performed with a period instrument ensemble, and according to Apollo’s Fire Managing Director Jacqueline Taylor, it took quite a lot of gentle nudging by Sorrell to persuade him to do so.  After all, the balance involved in playing with a modern symphony orchestra is quite unlike performing with its more delicate ancestors; likewise performing on a modern piano, with its heavy frame and triple steel-wound strings, is quite a different experience from exhibiting one’s finesse on the older pianoforte. 

Babayan is “excited and humbled” to make his period-instrument debut with Apollo’s Fire on March 13 at Severance Hall.  He will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in c minor, K. 491 on an historic nineteenth-century piano.

A guest artist in its own right, the 1877 Blüthner piano was selected by Mr. Babayan from amongst the 20 period instruments at the Frederick Historic Piano Collection in Massachusetts.  This unique collection of historic pianos has been featured in the New York Times.  Normally loathe to let their pianos be moved, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Frederick were so impressed upon meeting Mr. Babayan and hearing him play that they agreed to make an exception.  The Blüthner piano was carted to Cleveland during the mid-February blizzards, and is currently acclimatizing to its temporary home.

The Severance Hall program is titled “A Mozart Celebration,” and includes the dazzlingly virtuosic “Haffner” Symphony, as well as the rarely performed ballet music from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, with dancers.  Period dancers Carlos Fittante and Robin Gilbert Campos will grace the Severance Hall stage as they interpret this music, which has often been overlooked by orchestras simply because it was intended for ballet.  “This is Mozart in his baroque mode – festive and dancing off the page – and it’s one of our favorite things to play,” Sorrell said.

The Ballet Music, along with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in g minor, is featured on a new CD recording scheduled to be released concurrently with this concert.

*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.

Margi Griebling-Haigh is a freelance composer, oboist, and artist residing in Cleveland Heights.