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Such virtuosity and disarming presentation suggests that Esfahani could inspire a whole new appreciation of the instrument. The Guardian
Mahan Esfahani has made it his life's mission to rehabilitate the harpsichord in the mainstream of concert instruments, and to that end his creative programming and work in commissioning new works have drawn the attention of critics and audiences across Europe, Asia, and North America. He was the first and only harpsichordist to be a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010), a Borletti-Buitoni prize winner (2009), and a nominee for Gramophone's Artist of the Year (2014, 2015, and 2017).
His work for the harpsichord has resulted in recitals in most of the major series and concert halls, amongst them London's Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, Oji Hall in Tokyo, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Shanghai Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall in NYC, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Berlin Konzerthaus, Zurich Tonhalle, Wiener Konzerthaus, San Francisco Performances, the 92nd St Y, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Cologne Philharmonie, Edinburgh International Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Madrid's Fundacio Juan March, Bergen Festival, Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, Jerusalem Arts Festival, and the Leipzig Bach Festival, and concerto appearances with the Chicago Symphony, Ensemble Modern, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Czech Radio Symphony, Orquesta de Navarra, Malta Philharmonic, Orchestra La Scintilla, Aarhus Symphony, Montreal’s Les Violons du Roy, Hamburg Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with whom he was an artistic partner for 2016-2018.
His richly-varied discography includes six critically-acclaimed recordings for Hyperion and Deutsche Grammophon – garnering one Gramophone award, two BBC Music Magazine Awards, a Diapason d’Or and ‘Choc de Classica’ in France, and an ICMA. His latest CD Musique? has been awarded a prize by the German Record Critics (List of Best).
Esfahani studied musicology and history at Stanford University, where he first came into contact with the harpsichord in the class of Elaine Thornburgh. Following his decision to abandon the law for music, he studied harpsichord privately in Boston with Peter Watchorn before completing his formation under the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. Following a three-year stint as Artist-in-Residence at New College, Oxford, he continues his academic associations as an honorary member at Keble College, Oxford, and as professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature, as well as in live programmes with the popular mathematician and presenter Marcus du Sautoy; for the BBC’s Sunday Feature he is currently at work on his fourth radio documentary following two popular programmes on such subjects as the early history of African-American composers in the classical sphere and the development of orchestral music in Azerbaijan. Born in Tehran in 1984 and raised in the United States, he lived in Milan and then London for several years before taking up residence in Prague.
Here we have a cohesive, effective, taut programme of 20th-century harpsichord works that builds surely in density, complexity and philosophical provocation as it proceeds. In terms of programming, it’s a winner … there’s a lot here to get your teeth into.
Gramophone, August 2020 - on his CD "Musique?", published on 3 July 2020
Mahan Esfahani—he’s just such an amazing force and a polemicist for the harpsichord … because although he’s brilliant at Bach he refuses to let the harpsichord remain in an ‘Early Music’ box, and he’s a great commissioner and performer of new music … really good recorded sound as well … it’s brilliantly done.
BBC Record Review, July 2020 - on his CD "Musique?", published on 3 July 2020
The adventurous harpsichord champion Mahan Esfahani has, for the first time, devoted an entire album to music of our time. To further stretch the boundaries of the known, three of the six compositions also contain an electronic component, often based on the harpsichord sound itself. ... Esfahani's compatriot, Iranian Anahita Abbasi, shows herself a composer with guts in the two-year-old Intertwined Distances. Alienating buzzing sounds and furious keyboard fists interspersed with gossamer string playing create a theatrical listening experience.
Frits van der Waa, de Volkskrant, 15 July 2020
Esfahani’s playing feels free and spontaneous without losing the underlying pulse of the music. The toccatas display their brilliance proudly. One can imagine the young Bach showing off his prowess just like this. - Richard Fairman, The Financial Times, about his CD "The Toccatas, Hyperion (CDA68244)"
He plays through the work with almost improvisatory freedom, in addition to formidable technique. The fast, hair-raising virtuoso variations that require crossing hands sound, in his interpretation, with outstanding clarity. - Bergens Tidende, May 2019
The real kick-ass moments came … in Mahan Esfahani’s anarchic solo harpsichord programme, where the delicate instrument of Bach and Couperin – especially in George Lewis’ Timelike Weave – became a liberated voice of rebellion. - Ken Walton, The Scotsman, May 2019
Now he emerges as a superstar whose musicianship, imagination, virtuosity, cultural breadth and charisma far transcends the ivory tower in which the harpsichord has traditionally been placed. - Record Review / Richard Morrison, The Times (London), 08. May 2015
Excellent performance of five Scarlatti sonatas, beginning with an elegant rendition of the Sonata in F minor (K. 462). Mr. Esfahani demonstrated impressive technique during the Sonata in G (K. 124) and again during
the rapid-fire Sonata in D minor (K. 141). - Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, Arpil 2012
Esfahani´s playing is colourful and magnetic, the fingerwork in the more virtuoso works absolutely clean and articulate. - Phillip Kennicott, Gramophone
It would be hard not to be impressed by Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani . . . always insightful and, above all, visceral. - Kate Molleson, The Guardian, July 2012
J. S. BACH | Concerto d minor BWV 1052 |
Concerto E major BWV 1053 | |
Concerto D major BWV 1054 | |
Concerto A major BWV 1055 | |
Concerto f minor BWV 1056 | |
Concerto F major BWV 1057 | |
Concerto g minor BWV 1058 | |
Concerto d minor BWV 1059 (reconstruction as BWV 1059r by Mahan Esfahani) | |
Brandenburg Concerto V BWV 1050 | |
Triple Concerto BWV 1044 | |
C. P. E. BACH | Concerto for harpsichord e minor Wg. 15 |
Concerto for harpsichord, strings & continuo d minor Wq. 23 | |
Concerto for harpsichord, 2 horns ad libitum and strings c minor Wq. 37 | |
Concerto for harpsichord, 2 flutes ad libitum and strings F major Wq. 38 | |
Concerto for harpsichord F major Wg. 42 | |
Double' Concerto for harpsichord and (forte)piano E flat major Wq. 47 | |
W. F. BACH | Concerto a minor F. 45 |
J. C. BACH | Concerto No. 1 d minor 'Berlin' |
Concerto No. 6 f minor 'Berlin' | |
J. G. GOLDBERG | Concerto No. 1 d minor |
Concerto No. 2 E flat major | |
J. A. BENDA | Concerto g minor |
Concerto f minor | |
Concerto h minor | |
Concerto G major | |
Concerto C major | |
J. HAYDN | Concerto D major Hob XVIII: 11 |
Concerto F major Hob XVIII: 3 | |
Concerto G major Hob XVIII: 4 | |
M. DE FALLA | Concerto for Harpsichord and Five Instruments (1926) |
F. POULENC | Concert champêtre for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1928) |
B. MARTINU | Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1935) |
H. DISTLER | Concerto Op. 14 for Harpsichord and String Orchestra (1930s) |
H. KRASA | Chamber Music for Harpsichord and 7 Instruments (1936) |
N. ROREM | Concertino for Harpsichord and Seven Instruments (1946) |
F. MARTIN | Petite Symphonie Concertante for Harp, Harpsichord, and Piano (1945) |
Concert pour clavecin et petit orchestre (1952) | |
R. GERHARD | Concerto for Harpsichord, percussion, and strings (1959) |
E. CARTER | Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano (1961) |
J. HOROVITZ | Jazz Harpsichord Concerto (1965) |
K. PENDERECKI | Partita for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1971) |
V. KALABIS | Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings, Op. 42 (1975) |
H. GÓRECKI | Concerto for harpsichord and strings (1980) |
R. R. BENNETT | Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1980) |
I. XENAKIS | "À l'Ile de Goree" for Harpsichord and Ensemble (concerto) (1986) |
M. NYMAN | Concerto for amplified harpsichord and strings (1995) |
P. GLASS | Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra (2002) |
F. COLL Y GARCIA | Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra (2016/2017) |
E. KATS-CHERNIN | 'Ancient Letters,' concerto for harpsichord and orchestra (2017) |
G. CARPENTER | Mondrian, concerto for Harpsichord (2019) |
M. SRNKA | Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra (premiere 21 June 2020, Cologne) |
P. RUDERS | Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra (premiere 10 September 2020, Aarhus) |
B. SORENSEN | Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra (premiere 25 February 2021, Bergen) |
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J. C. BACH | Prelude E flat major, BWV 177/1 |
J. PACHELBEL | Ciaccona D major |
L. MARCHAND | Suite d minor |
J. S. BACH | Toccata d minor, BWV 913 |
W. BYRD | Ut re mi fa sol la, G major |
J. S. BACH | Fantasy and Fugue a minor, BWV 904 |
G. FRESCOBALDI | Capriccio sopra la Bassa Fiammenga, F4.05 |
J. S. BACH | Toccata D major, BWV 912 |
T. TALLIS | Felix namque |
L. BERIO | Rounds |
J.-P.RAMEAU | Les tendres plaintes |
Le lardon La boiteuse | |
L'entretien des Muses | |
Les cyclopes | |
H. COWELL | Set of Four |
M. SRNKA | Triggering |
J. S. BACH | Partita No.3 in a minor, BWV 827 |
S. RASMUSSEN | Quadroforone No 1 |
L. BERIO | Rounds |
M. SRNKA | Triggering |
J. CAGE | HPSCHD Solo VII |
A. ABBASI | Intertwined Distances |
All Bach | |
J. S. BACH | All 6 Sonatas (BWV 1014-1019) |
Bach/Milhaud/Piston | |
J. S. BACH | Sonata in e minor BWV 1023 |
D. MILHAUD | Sonata |
J. S. BACH | Sonata No. 3 E Major for violin and harpsichord, BWV 1016 |
C. P. E. BACH | Sonata in h minor |
J. S. BACH | Sonata No. 5 in f minor BWV 1018 |
W. PISTON | Sonatina for violin and harpsichord |
Our Recordings, DDD, 2018
Hyperion, DDD, 2018
Hyperion Records Limited 2018, Hyperion A68249
Deutschlandfunk | Deutsche Grammophon GmbH 2016
Our Recordings, OUR 6220610, 2015
Deutschlandfunk | Deutsche Grammophon GmbH 2015
Hyperion Record Limited 2014
Wigmore Hall Live 2014
Hyperion Records Limited 2013, Hyperion A67995
Congratulations to Mahan Esfahani: His CD Musique? has been awarded a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics' Award). "(...) now Mahan Esfahani presents a furious recording, which combines exclusively works of the 20th and 21st century. He literally unleashes the instrument, opens the gates to new dimensions of sound and sometimes even percussion," the jury said.
The recording, released in August on the Hyperion label, had already received high praise from the critics: "This album of modern works for harpsichord completely turns our conventional idea of the instrument upside down," judged The Telegraph, and the BBC Record Review found it "Simply brilliantly done". The New Yorker was thrilled: "In acoustic works by Toru Takemitsu, Henry Cowell and Gavin Bryars, he shows the deft touch and technical mastery already familiar from his celebrated baroque interpretations. In electro-acoustic works by Kaija Saariaho, Anahita Abbasi and Luc Ferrari, however, the effervescent runs, razor-sharp strokes and bombastic explosions rid the instrument of all courtly decorations and make it sound completely new and peculiar". De Volkskrant summarized it as: "...a theatrical listening experience".
Mahan Esfahani
Musique?
Hyperion, CDA68287