Mahan Esfahani
Born in Iran, trained largely in the U.S., active in Britain, and resident in Prague, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani has helped bring the solo harpsichord into the concert mainstream. In 2011, he became the first keyboardist to perform an all-harpsichord recital during the BBC Proms festival.
Esfahani was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1984 but was raised mostly in the U.S. His father gave him lessons on the piano, and as a teenager, he discovered the harpsichord. Esfahani was admitted to Stanford University in California, where he studied musicology and music history under George Houle, continuing to deepen his interest in early music. After graduating, he moved to Boston for harpsichord studies with Peter Watchorn and then to Prague for further work with Zuzana Růžičková. Esfahani served as an artist in residence at New College, Oxford, from 2008 to 2010, and several major prizes and fellowships from around this period helped launch his career. These included designation as a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010), a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award (2009), and several nominations for Classical Artist of the Year from Gramophone magazine. After a 2009 recording of the complete harpsichord music of John Bull on the Musica Omnia label, Esfahani moved to the Hyperion and OUR Recordings labels for a series of albums.
Esfahani has appeared at major halls in the U.S., across Europe, and in East Asia, including Lincoln Center in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and Oji Hall in Tokyo. He has performed concertos with the BBC Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the Melbourne Symphony, among many others. From 2016 to 2019, he was an artistic partner to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Esfahani has often included contemporary music in his concerts even when, as in a 2016 Cologne performance of Steve Reich's Piano Phase on the harpsichord, he faced boos from the audience. In 2016, he released a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, on Deutsche Grammophon. Esfahani released the album Musique? in 2020, and in April of that year in the U.S., he became the first solo harpsichordist to appear on the NPR radio network's "Tiny Desk Concert" program. Esfahani has been a professor of music at London's Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 2015, and he is often heard as a commentator on the BBC 3 and BBC 4 radio networks. He released several albums devoted to Bach's music on Hyperion during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Bach: Notebooks for Anna Magdalena in 2023. That year also saw the release of an album of harpsichord works by Viktor Kalabis, Hans Krása, and Bohuslav Martinů.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Bull: Complete Keyboard Music, Vol. 1
Peter Watchorn, Mahan Esfahani
Klassiek - Released by Musica Omnia on 23 mrt. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: French Suite No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 813: III. Sarabande
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 15 sep. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Borup-Jørgensen : Organ Music
Mathias Reumert, Pia Hansen, Mahan Esfahani, Lars Sømod, Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Jens E. Christensen
Klassiek - Released by OUR Recordings on 6 jan. 2017
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 26 aug. 2016
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Italian Concerto, French Overture, 4 Duets, Capriccios
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 2 sep. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: IV. Gavotte
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 25 aug. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The French Suites
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 6 okt. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The 6 Partitas for Harpsichord, BWV 825-830
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 28 mei 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
C.P.E. Bach: Württemberg Sonatas, H.30-H.36
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 5 jan. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Martinů, Krása & Kalabis: Harpsichord Concertos
Mahan Esfahani, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Liebreich
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 3 feb. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique? – Modern and Electro-Acoustic Works for Harpsichord
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 26 jun. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rameau: Pièces de clavecin – Complete Keyboard Suites
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 2 nov. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Chaconne in G Major for Harpsichord, HWV 435 (Musical Moments)
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 11 mei 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The Toccatas for Harpsichord, BWV 910-916
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 2 aug. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Passinge Mesures – Music of the English Virginalists
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 2 nov. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo