Bach - Goldberg Variations
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Cat No: 4795929
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Instrumental
Release Date: 26th August 2016
Contents
Artists
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)About
“I cannot deny that I find a great deal of narrative and life beyond the score when I play [the Goldberg Variations]. Coming in the last decade of the composer’s life, they offer us a view both of someone looking back on his decades-long aesthetic transformation and of an innovative and sensitive musician responding to new trends and techniques around him.” – Mahan Esfahani
Reviews
Esfahani shows amazing rhythmic freedom at times, sometimes teasing us with a long pause before a repeat starts. The final sequence of variations 26 to 29 accumulates brilliant excitement, after which the folk songs of variation 30 are a touching relaxation, and the Aria finally emerges intact. A hugely stimulating account of one of the peaks of western music. Nicholas Kenyon
The first thing you notice about this remarkable recording is the unusual warmth and tonal vibrancy of the harpsichord, built in 2013 by Huw Sanders after a German two-manual model from around 1710. Mahan Esfahani obviously revels in its capabilities as he takes you on an arresting journey through Bach’s Goldberg Variations, where his sophisticated virtuosity, stylistic aplomb and strong personal profile give fresh and meaningful voice to this well-travelled score. ... In his booklet-notes, Esfahani plays down his own abilities in face of past luminaries such as Wanda Landowska, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Isolde Ahlgrimm, Zuzana Růžičková and Alan Curtis. Don’t believe Esfahani’s modesty for one second. His Goldberg Variations clearly belongs in such company, and in all serious Bach collections. Jed Distler
[Esfahani's] contributions are the extraordinary range and delicacy of his touch and his scrupulous attention to matching phrasing. The second feature is immediately audible in the first of the canons. It's at the unison so the lines are constantly entangled with each other, yet every articulatory subtlety is mirrored bar-by-bar. His touch draws a remarkable variety of tone, density and resonance from his instrument. George Pratt (Instrumental Choice)This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here