Mahan Esfahani: Byrd, Dowland & Gibbons
A radical figurehead for the harpsichord brings to life beguiling music by some of the English Renaissance’s greatest composers.
Mahan Esfahani, perhaps today’s best-known harpsichordist, is an eloquent ambassador for the brilliance, beauty and versatility of the instrument.
Tonight is a rare chance to hear him conjure up the world of the Elizabethan era, known as the golden age of English music.
In music rich with decoration, detail and irresistible rhythmic impulse, the harpsichord’s bite and glitter is impressive, while also intimate in scale.
Works by John Bull, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd and Giles Farnaby, among others, cover a wide range of expression from religious introspection to vigorous dances and ceaselessly inventive variations.
Performers
Mahan Esfahani harpsichord
Repertoire
Byrd: O mistress mine
Tomkins: Barafostus dreame
Dowland: Can she excuse my wrongs arr. William Randall
Gibbons: The hunt's up (Peascod time)
G Farnaby: Farmer's paven
Sweelinck: Fantasia cromatica, SwWV.258
Gibbons: Pavan in A minor, FVB.292
Bull: Walsingham
Interval
Bull: In nomine, FVB.119
G Farnaby: Why aske you; Up tails all
Tomkins: Pavan; Worster braules
Inglott: The leaves bee greene
Byrd: Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la
Need to know
Find out more about the music with our free programme.
View the programme
Reviews
‘No one has done more to popularise [the harpsichord] as a concert instrument in the present day than Iranian-American virtuoso Mahan Esfahani’
Evening Standard
For your visit
This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
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