Jean-Paul Gasparian - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Babadjanian: Heroic Ballad (2022)

The young pianist Jean-Paul Gasparian signs here his first album with orchestra with the stainless Rachmaninoff 2 and the beautiful discovery of an Armenian composer, Arno Babadjanian, whose unpredictable career ends in the jazz and even the pop of the 70s!

Gasparian: his surname alone sounds like a promise, a calling – that of the East, of the plains of Asia Minor, of the Caucasus mountains – a kind of foretaste of the music featured here in the artist’s first recording with an orchestra : Rachmaninoff’s ageless Second Concerto – which has been accompanying Gasparian as a playmate since his early years, even before he entered Jacques Rouvier’s class at the Paris Conservatory – and the very rarely performed Ballade héroïque by the pianist’s compatriot Arno Babadjanian. Indeed, Jean-Paul Gasparian’s origins are Armenian on his father’s side; he carries within a part of this land steeped in tradition, although he is French-born and lives in France.

The first time he set foot on Armenian ground was only in October 2021. “Both my parents are pianists”, explains Gasparian. “My father is a composer and concert pianist, my mother is a teacher. Both of their careers are reflected within my own. My father was born in Armenia and arrived in France with his parents when he was 14. [..] Therefore, I have been immersed in a predominantly Russian musical universe since I was a child and am familiar with recordings made by Richter, Gilels and Mravinsky, thanks to old family LPs dating from the Soviet era. Prokofiev, Scriabin and Khachaturian’s music has always accompanied me, so it seemed only natural to choose Rachmaninoff and Babadjanian for my first recording with orchestra.”

The “logic” doesn’t stop there since Jean-Paul Gasparian had already chosen Rachmaninoff’s 9 Preludes op. 39 for his first solo recording, which he made when he was a first-year student in Jacques Rouvier’s class. Thanks to a Beethoven-Rachmaninoff recital, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad jury later awarded him the “Prix Thierry Scherz 2020”, which led to this new album. [..]

Jean-Paul Gasparian, piano
Berner Symphonieorchester
Stefan Blunier, conductor

Tracklist:

1. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: I. Moderato
2. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: II. Adagio sostenuto
3. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: III. Allegro scherzando
4. Heroic Ballad for Piano & Orchestra