Martha Argerich & Sergei Babayan – Prokofiev For Two (2018) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Pianists Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan have recorded two selections from Prokofiev’s music for stage and screen in magnificent two-piano transcriptions by Babayan. The new album features Babayan’s twelve-movement transcription of numbers from the ballet Romeo and Juliet and his seven-movement suite transcribed from Prokofiev’s incidental music for Hamlet and Eugene Onegin, film score for The Queen of Spades and opera War and Peace.

Nestled up cosily with Sergei Babayan, gazing into the distance, rather like Juliet next to Romeo, Martha Argerich seems to have had an eye on marketing when she produced the “Prokofiev for Two” album cover for her longstanding publisher, Deutsche Grammophon. Although well-known, these works haven’t yet been released in this format: each of the 19 pieces is an accomplished transcription by Sergei Babayan. More than half of this album is given over to extracts from the ballet Romeo and Juliet, originally a symphonic work, but one that sounds devilishly good when brought to life by these two exceptional pianists. The remainder of the album is made up of various pieces of stage music, from Hamlet, Eugene Onegin and the opera War and Peace. This is a reinvigorating album, with an eighty-year-old Martha Argerich who has lost none of her extraordinary technique. As for the Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan, a student of Mikhail Pletnev and a teacher of Daniil Trifonov, he seems to be having great fun with his own transcriptions alongside his long-time partner and friend.

Tracklist:
01 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-1. Juliet’s Death
02 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-2. Montagues And Capulets
03 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-3. Morning Dance
04 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-4. Quarrel
05 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-5. Gavotte
06 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-6. The Young Juliet-The Nurse And Romeo
07 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-7. Folk Dance
08 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-8. Dance With Mandolines
09 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-9. Aubade
10 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-10. Dance Of Five Couples
11 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-11. Romeo And Juliet Before Departure
12 – Prokofiev: 12 Movements From Romeo And Juliet, Op. 64-12. Death Of Tybalt
13 – Prokofiev: Incidental Music To Hamlet, Op. 77-The Ghost Of Hamlet’s Father
14 – Prokofiev: Incidental Music To Eugene Onegin, Op. 71-Mazurka
15 – Prokofiev: Incidental Music To Eugene Onegin, Op. 71-Polka
16 – Prokofiev: The Queen Of Spades, Op. 70-Polonaise
17 – Prokofiev: Pushkin Waltzes, Op. 120-Waltz No.2 In C Sharp Minor
18 – Prokofiev: War And Peace, Op. 91-Natasha’s And Andrei’s Valse
19 – Prokofiev: The Queen Of Spades, Op. 70-Idée fixe