Two heads are not always better than one, and four hands are not always better than two.

It certainly is a mark of musical generosity when the subject of a faculty recital decides to share the spotlight with his most renowned pupils. Such was the case at Sergei Babayan’s recital at The Cleveland Institute of Music on Sunday, January 27.  All of the repertoire was either written for two pianos, or arranged thusly.

The concert began with two movements from Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 1 for two pianos. Babayan shared the stage with Andrius Zlabys, who has one numerous prizes since graduating from CIM. The final movement, which depicts a Russian Easter, is not easy to bring off. The repeating motif can sound, well, overly repetitive if not properly built to a climax. Zlabys and Babayan avoided this trap, and some of their fortes were thunderous.

Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite, arranged by Mikhail Pletnev, was beautifully played by Babayan with Grace Fong. They brought the perfect mix of elegance, brutality, and irony to this captivating music, some of which has clearly inspired some of Danny Elfman’s more interesting movie scores.

Shoko Inoue was awarded third prize at the 1999 Cleveland International Piano Competition and hasn’t been heard from since. Their selection, the first movement from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos (K. 448), was rhythmically soggy, overpedaled and dynamically uninteresting. Of course, I was raised on the classic Josef and Rosina Lhevinne recording, so perhaps my standards are unforgiving.  Ms. Inoue also made a habit of pulling ridiculous, infantile smiley faces which made her look like Lang Lang in drag.

Following that debacle, it was a welcome relief to hear Zsolt Bognar, whose music making combines musical virtuosity, generosity, and simple good sense. He participated in two pieces which were not familiar to me: the second movement from Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto, and the Dance of the Tumblers from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden. During that portion, there was a bit of distraction in the form of some loud humming from Babayan himself.

The last large scale work of the evening was Rachmaninoff’s complete Second Suite.  Despite some rough spots at the beginning of the work, Babayan and Margarita Schevchenko gave a driving, compelling account of the work, altough the second movement was a bit fast for my taste.

The concert ended on a bad note, pun intended. Dmitri Levkovich assisted in a four handed arrangement of Joplin rags. Immediately, the pianists committed the two most common cardinal sins of rag playing, excessive speed and rubato, despite the fact that Joplin placed an admonition that rags should not be played fast at the beginning of each piece. Rags are to be played at a moderate, march-like tempo, and rubato is not appropriate. The arrangement, by the Labeque sisters, was overwritten trash which should never have been published. Initially impressed by Levkovich’s virtuosity when he played the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto several years ago, I began to have doubts about his musicality when I heard parts of his recital during the 2007 Cleveland Competition. I have no doubts now, Levkovich is sadly not one of the elect.

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