Mahan Esfahani

Queen’s Hall 17/8/24

Mahan Esfahani (Harpsichord)

 Mahan the Magnificent

 What a brilliant recital! I had come across the Iranian-American harpsichordist, Mahan Esfahani, at the Lammermuir Festival a couple of years ago, and knew this would be a good concert, but his virtuosity and musicianship seem to have upped a further notch, and he gave a performance worthy of great Festivals of the past.

I was lucky in my former career as a singer to work with some of the finest harpsichordists in the world, most notably the brilliant Trevor Pinnock. We collaborated in several major tours and Deutsche Grammophon recordings with the English Concert, which he founded, and I used to be mesmerised by his brilliance at the keyboard. We are fortunate also to have two world class harpsichordists in Scotland, John Butt in Glasgow and John Kitchen here in Edinburgh.

However, even those illustrious gentlemen would have been thrilled and excited by Mr Esfahani’s playing today, as we were given a masterclass in baroque technique and style. Playing on a modern instrument designed by himself, which even featured a ‘16 foot’ register (ie an octave below normal), the range of sounds he conjured up in the Queen’s Hall was phenomenal. The concert was pretty well-attended, and those that were there will carry memories of an outstanding recital.

 Mr Esfahani began with a Fantasia by Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, which set the tone for the whole concert. This was followed by a Chaconne by Handel, and then an extended work, the Partita No 4 by J S Bach. The partita was in seven movements, capturing our attention immediately with the French Ouverture, full of flourishes, trills and double-dotting. A beguiling Allemande follows, and I particularly enjoyed the fifth movement, the Sarabande. The penultimate movement, a short Menuet, combined duple and triple rhythms, and flowed into the final Gigue, which brought this wondrous work to a sparkling climax.

After the interval, we heard a superb Chaconne by Pachelbel (not the famous Canon, but another brilliant piece built over a bass figure), a Fantasia by another Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and the extraordinary Capricciosa by Buxtehude, a set of 32 variations on an aria theme. In his charming introduction to the second half, Mr Esfahani told us a bit about his harpsichord and something about the Capricciosa. He was able to reassure us that the 32 variations were quite short! They were, however, absolutely mind-blowing in their audacity, and Mr Esfahani was rewarded with a spontaneous ovation.

This was an utterly superb recital by someone at the top of his game, full of virtuosity but also deeply sensitive to the music. Two caveats: the free sheet was totally lacking in any useful information, and had a misprint in the programme. In addition, many people coming to a harpsichord recital of this stature want to know about the instrument. It was only after representations were made at the interval that Mr Esfahani enlightened us about the instrument.

Also whose decision was it to plunge the entire audience into Stygian gloom throughout the recital? We couldn’t even read the inadequate free sheet!

I must not end on a negative note. This was an absolutely superb recital, one of the gems of this Festival, played for us by Mahan the Magnificent!

Photo credit: Kaja Smith