CIM Faculty Recital: Sergei Babayan

This afternoon I made my way back to CIM for the piano faculty recital of Sergei Babayan. As I waited for the recital to begin I was struck by something: Everyone around me was speaking a language other than English. Being slightly undercafinated and sleep deprived it took me much longer than I would have liked to realize that Russian was the language du jour. What fascinating diversity does Cleveland have in all walks -- "Arts and Culture" to plain old regular culture?

The first part of the program consisted of 20 pieces attributed to Alexander Scriabin, whose name I recognize but whose works I am completely unfamiliar with. The first 19 blended together so fluidly that I had given up on trying to figure out where on the program we were but none particularly caught my ear. At some point during the last piece ("Poem: 'Vers la flamme'", Op. 72) my eyes involuntarily closed and I had the most vivid images flowing through my head.

The 2nd half was dedicated to the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff and none of the pieces elicited the reaction that I had to Vers la flamme but I was captivated by the transcription from the Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 'Andante'.

On the pop-music front, I came across Owl City's Fireflies this evening, and it's just kind of a fun song with an interesting synth-orchestra sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0hbUw