NPR: Mahan Esfahani, Tiny Desk Concert
The harpsichord is a beautiful but notoriously fussy instrument. After we wheeled one behind Bob Boilen's desk, it took the bulk of an hour to get the tuning just perfect for the very first Tiny Desk harpsichord recital. Given that our guest was Mahan Esfahani, the instrument's most ardent advocate, we were willing to wait.
National Public Radio, Tiny Desk
Tom Huizenga
The harpsichord is a beautiful but notoriously fussy instrument. After we wheeled one behind Bob Boilen's desk, it took the bulk of an hour to get the tuning just perfect for the very first Tiny Desk harpsichord recital. Given that our guest was Mahan Esfahani, the instrument's most ardent advocate, we were willing to wait.
Read more here or watch below.
Chicago Tribune: Mahan Esfahani Featured in Best Classical Albums of 2019
Chicago Tribune
Howard Reich
Bach’s Toccatas carry a measure of mystery, in that definitive scores for this music are impossible to come by, leaving performers ample latitude in ornamentation and other details. Harpsichordist Esfahani applies meticulous scholarship to this process yet has produced a vivid recording built on animated performances appropriate to the toccata form.
To see the Chicago Tribune’s complete list of “Best Classical Albums of 2019,” click here.
The Times: Mahan Esfahani – Bach Toccatas Review – Bold, Dynamic, and Stupendous
Mahan Esfahani’s goal in life, his biographical note says, is to “bring the harpsichord to the concert mainstream”. To further this, the Iranian-American musician commissions new pieces, which is certainly one way of taking the keyboard instrument that plucks its strings out of history’s cocoon and welcoming it into the modern world. The other way is to give such thunderously exciting performances of old repertoire that anyone with ears to hear will sit there with mouth agape.
The Times
Geoff Brown
Mahan Esfahani’s goal in life, his biographical note says, is to “bring the harpsichord to the concert mainstream”. To further this, the Iranian-American musician commissions new pieces, which is certainly one way of taking the keyboard instrument that plucks its strings out of history’s cocoon and welcoming it into the modern world. The other way is to give such thunderously exciting performances of old repertoire that anyone with ears to hear will sit there with mouth agape.
Read more here.
Financial Times: Mahan Esfahani – Bach: Toccatas – free and spontaneous performances
As the outstanding harpsichordist of the younger generation, Esfahani naturally plays the toccatas on a harpsichord… 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.
Financial Times
Richard Fairman
As the outstanding harpsichordist of the younger generation, Esfahani naturally plays the toccatas on a harpsichord… 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.
Read more here.
Gramophone: Video of the day – Mahan Esfahani on Bach's Toccatas
In the August issue of Gramophone, Richard Bratby speaks to Mahan Esfahani about Bach's seven keyboard toccatas (BWV910-916) and they discuss how he has approached recording these seven pieces for which no complete manuscript survives.
Gramophone
In the August issue of Gramophone, Richard Bratby speaks to Mahan Esfahani about Bach's seven keyboard toccatas (BWV910-916) and they discuss how he has approached recording these seven pieces for which no complete manuscript survives.
Esfahani's new recording of the toccatas will be released by Hyperion Records on August 2, and in the video below Esfahani shines a light on the recording process and the debt that he owes to the recording's producer Sébastien Chonion and engineer David Hinitt.
The Guardian: Mahan Esfahani – ‘The harpsichord is like the posh, pretty boy in prison’
Mahan Esfahani was nine when he first heard a harpsichord. He and his parents were visiting Iran, the country where he was born, and which his family had left for the US five years before. “An uncle gave me a bunch of cassettes,” he says. “One was of Karl Richter [the German conductor and harpsichordist] playing Bach. Well, I listened to it, and I thought: ‘This is what I’ve got to do.’ I don’t mean in terms of a career. I just thought my life would be well spent in the company of this instrument. I thought I would get a profession, which is what every Iranian parent wants for their child, and that – once I was a doctor or lawyer – I’d be able to buy a harpsichord, and play at home.”
The Guardian
Rachel Cooke
Mahan Esfahani was nine when he first heard a harpsichord. He and his parents were visiting Iran, the country where he was born, and which his family had left for the US five years before. “An uncle gave me a bunch of cassettes,” he says. “One was of Karl Richter [the German conductor and harpsichordist] playing Bach. Well, I listened to it, and I thought: ‘This is what I’ve got to do.’ I don’t mean in terms of a career. I just thought my life would be well spent in the company of this instrument. I thought I would get a profession, which is what every Iranian parent wants for their child, and that – once I was a doctor or lawyer – I’d be able to buy a harpsichord, and play at home.”
Was it like falling in love? “Yes, absolutely it was.” Can he describe how the sound of it made him feel? He thinks for a moment: it’s hard to put into words. “When I played the flute or the violin, which I did seriously, it was as if there was a hand over my mouth. The second I played a harpsichord, it was as if the hand had been removed. This was the sound I’d been looking for to express myself.”
Read more here.
National Review: The Harpsichordist, An Instrument of Their Own
Mahan Esfahani is a musician, and an unusual one. He’s not a pianist, violinist, cellist, or even a tuba player: He is a harpsichordist. Jay talks with him about his life and his instrument. William F. Buckley Jr., a devotee of the harpsichord his entire life, would have loved this.
National Review
Jay Nordlinger
William F. Buckley Jr. would have loved meeting Mahan Esfahani. I have done a Q&A with Esfahani, here. He is one of the leading harpsichordists in the world. He is also sort of an evangelist for his instrument — making the case for it as a going, living concern. WFB was devoted to the harpsichord, all his life. He owned several and played them regularly. He knew Wanda Landowska, and her student Ralph Kirkpatrick, and his student Fernando Valenti, and so on. He told many stories about them (a few of which I shared with Esfahani). He had harpsichordists give recitals in his home(s). He definitely would have loved having Esfahani over. I think the feeling would have been mutual.
Read more here.
The New York Times: Classical Music Concerts to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend – Mahan Esfahani
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA at the 92nd Street Y (May 8, 7:30 p.m.). The harpsichordist de nos jours Mahan Esfahani is the soloist in two relatively recent concertos, by Manuel de Falla and Bohuslav Martinu. Also on the bill are two arrangements for nonet, one of Mozart’s Wind Quintet by Jean Françaix, and another of Strauss’s “Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche” by Brett Dean.
212-415-5500, 92y.org
The New York Times
David Allen
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA at the 92nd Street Y (May 8, 7:30 p.m.). The harpsichordist de nos jours Mahan Esfahani is the soloist in two relatively recent concertos, by Manuel de Falla and Bohuslav Martinu. Also on the bill are two arrangements for nonet, one of Mozart’s Wind Quintet by Jean Françaix, and another of Strauss’s “Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche” by Brett Dean.
212-415-5500, 92y.org
Read about other events here.
The Times: Mahan Esfahani on why JS Bach is misunderstood
“Johann Sebastian Bach is my favourite figure in all of history: the master of masters, the big wig in the sky. But he’s also one of the most misunderstood. In my new show on Radio 3 I will be finding new ways to approach his music, as well as challenging some of the myths that have arisen about him. These are some of the keys to his life and work.” – Mahan Esfahani
The Times
Mahan Esfahani
Johann Sebastian Bach is my favourite figure in all of history: the master of masters, the big wig in the sky. But he’s also one of the most misunderstood. In my new show on Radio 3 I will be finding new ways to approach his music, as well as challenging some of the myths that have arisen about him. These are some of the keys to his life and work.
Read more here.
WQXR Presents "19 for 19": Artists to Watch in the Upcoming Year
Contrary to the misguided and musty reputation often bestowed upon classical music, this art form is very much alive — and in the hands of many talented and creative musicians ushering it forward. That’s why WQXR is kicking off 2019 by introducing “19 for 19,” a group of artists we love that includes long-time heroes, established favorites and newcomers set for stardom.
WQXR
Contrary to the misguided and musty reputation often bestowed upon classical music, this art form is very much alive — and in the hands of many talented and creative musicians ushering it forward. That’s why WQXR is kicking off 2019 by introducing “19 for 19,” a group of artists we love that includes long-time heroes, established favorites and newcomers set for stardom. We’re planning all sorts of exciting collaborations across our platforms throughout the year, so stay tuned. Get to know them here, and if you haven’t yet heard what they can do, now’s the time.
Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist
Meyers has been busy on the international professional scene since she was 10 years old. She has a host of honors to her name, but is not one to rest on her laurels. Her 2019 is another year filled with premieres, outreach initiatives and new collaborations. Having given the world premiere in 2015 of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s final work, Fantasia, Meyers resurrects it for its Asian premiere in Japan. In the spring, she heads to London for the launch of The Strad’s new educational conference. On this side of the Atlantic she tours with classical guitarist Jason Vieaux, and joins the Pasadena Symphony for Adam Schoenberg’s Orchard in Fog, written especially for Meyers. Down the road, she’ll play commissions from Arturo Márquez, Michael Daugherty and Julia Adolphe. Catch her live at The Greene Space on January 31, performing music by Arvo Pärt, John Corigliano and John Williams.
Mahan Esfahani, harpsichordist
Throughout his career, Iranian-American Mahan Esfahani has been making a particularly strong case for ushering harpsichord performance practice into the modern era. If you’ve yet to experience his work, allow yourself to be challenged in the best possible way as he encourages you to consider the harpsichord unbound by the straightjacket of history: “Until (it) has the presence that any other mainstream instrument has,” he notes, “my work isn’t done.” Hot on the heels of his acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut last year (in which New Yorker critic Alex Ross singled out his “exuberant, anti-sentimental” playing), in 2019 he crosses the U.S. evangelizing for all that is good about the harpsichord. He has concert dates with the Seattle Symphony, an engagement at Indiana’s Purdue University and a collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the 92nd Street Y.
Read more here.