Aldeburgh – Solo Recital – 10 April 2020 – Aldeburgh Festival – United Kingdom

As passionate as he is about expanding the harpischord’s repertoire, Esfahani’s musical life circles round Bach – ‘my favourite figure in all of history: the master of masters, the big wig in the sky’ as he described him in his recent Radio 3 series devoted to the composer.

Here he focusses on the vitality and charm of the French Dance Suites. They are preceded with music appropriate to Passiontide season; liturgical works more often heard on the organ, including Tallis’ elegant, spacious offertory on a Marian motet and Pachelbel’s variants on a chorale that was later so memorably embedded within Bach’s St Matthew Passion.

PROGRAMME:
Thomas Tallis: Felix Namque II
Johann Pachelbel: Fantasia ex dis /Chorale-variations on ‘O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden’ / Ciaccona in D
J.S. Bach : Three Sinfonias / French Suite in C BWV 813 / Overture in the French Manner in B minor BWV 831