Mahan Esfahani - Musique? - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This sensational recital-featuring some of the greatest keyboard music to emerge from these islands-is the perfect vehicle for Mahan Esfahani's abundant talents. His accompanying booklet notes are an added bonus, guaranteed to inform, illuminate and provoke by turns. Performed for the most part on a double-manual harpsichord made by Robert Goble & Son, Oxford (1990), kindly loaned by Bob Robertson and based on an instrument made by Carl Conrad Fleischer, Hamburg (1710); tracks 12, 15, 18 & 19 performed on virginals made by Huw Saunders, London (1989), kindly loaned by Huw Saunders and a copy of an instrument made by Thomas White, Old Jewry, London (1642).

For Mahan Esfahani, Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias were more than just the tools by which his children and pupils were to acquire a prodigious technique. These 'tiny gems' (as Esfahani call them) reveal expressive depths to rival the major keyboard works and make considerable demands of the performer's musical mettle. The is the sixth instalment in his unmissable complete Bach keyboard survey.

A comprehensive overview of every style available to Bach, from the archaic to the modern, Mahan Esfahani rises confidently to the challenge of his own brilliant appraisal of the Partitas in performances brimming with intellectual and emotional energy.