Program Notes

Mr. Egarr will speak about each work from the stage. Below is a general introduction to tonight’s program: Music history contains a few blessed instances of composer and instrument achieving a perfect symbiosis: Dussek, Chopin and Rachmaninoff with the piano - Biber, Corelli and Paganini with the violin - Monteverdi, Purcell and McFerrin with the voice. The harpsichord had its 'golden age' in the seventeenth century. This instruments roots lie firmly in the sound-world and repertoire of the lutenists, with its ornaments, broken chords, and reliance on resonance. Few composers have ever really understood this, apart from the few geniuses from this golden time. The colleagues and friends Froberger and Louis Couperin are two such men. Both formed the lute style into something personal and unique on the keyboard, and both had the ability to write music that can only be fully understood and realised on the harpsichord. Their English counterparts Henry Purcell and John Blow are miserably undervalued for their keyboard output. Their harpsichord works are beautifully written for the instrument, and full of that quirky wit and humour that is so unmistakeably English.

“The Bernstein of Early Music'”— National Public Radio (USA), CD review


“Everything sounds newly minted, bursting with vitality”– BBC Music Magazine

Richard Egarr brings a joyful sense of adventure and a keen, enquiring mind to all his music-making. He is equally happy conducting, directing from the keyboard or playing concerti (on organ, harpsichord, fortepiano or modern piano), giving solo recitals, playing chamber-music, and indeed talking about music at every opportunity.

Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music since 2006 (when he succeeded Christopher Hogwood), Egarr complements this with a handful of other select period ensembles – last season’s visits to the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston and Portland Baroque both prompted immediate reinvitations, and this season he goes to the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco. He is increasingly sought-after by non-period chamber and symphony orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony and Rotterdam Philharmonic where he debuted in 10/11. In 11/12 he returns to Rotterdam and to the the Residentie Orchestra and Scottish Chamber, and debuts with the Berlin Konzerthausorchester (Mozart) and the Helsingborg Symphony (Sweden) for Bach/Stokowski. Egarr’s plans with the Academy of Ancient Music this coming season culminate in a European tour of a celebratory Handel programme to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Edinburgh Usher Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Palais de Versailles. Last season they toured together to Japan, Korea, China and Australia.

Since his appointment as Music Director, Egarr has established the AAM’s own chorus, and operas/oratorios lie at the heart of his repertoire; in June 2010 he conducted Mozart’s opera La Finta Giardiniera in concert at the Barbican Centre and the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. He is a lasting inspiration to young musicians, and besides his teaching position at the Amsterdam Conservatoire he has regular relationships with the Britten Pears Foundation where he conducted Handel’s Saul in 2010, and with the Netherlands Opera Academy (Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito in 2010 and Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino in 2011). He made his Glyndebourne debut in 2007 conducting a staged Matthew Passion.

He records for Harmonia Mundi USA., with whom his solo output comprises works by Frescobaldi, Gibbons, Couperin, Purcell, Froberger, Mozart and J.S. Bach (Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier). He has an impressive list of award winning recordings with violinist Andrew Manze, including Sonatas from Bach, Biber, Rebel, Pandolfi, Corelli, Handel, Mozart and Schubert. With the Academy of Ancient Music he has recorded J.S. Bach’s harpsichord concertos and Brandenburg Concertos. In the Handel year 2009 they completed a 7 CD series of Handel discs including the instrumental music Op.1, 2 and 5, the Concerti grossi Op. 3 (which won a Gramophone Award in 2007) and the Organ Concertos Op.4 (MIDEM Award and Edison Award 2009) and Op.7. Richard Egarr has given many solo and concerto performances throughout Europe, Japan and the USA. In Spring 2011 he tours the USA playing the Well-tempered Clavier and a Louis Couperin programme, following his CD releases on Harmonia Mundi of the same repertoire.

Richard Egarr trained as a choirboy at York Minster, at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and as organ scholar at Clare College Cambridge. His studies with Gustav and Marie Leonhardt further inspired his work in the field of historical performance.