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Music / klaver solo

Italian concerto

Johann Sebastian Bach

Reviews (17)

AllMusic

2007

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James Leonard

2007

"Though the sound of both sets of live performances is fairly rough, the performances themselves, especially the Chopin, are mandatory listening for any Richter fan who hasn't already heard them".

AllMusic

2014

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By

James Manheim

2014

"The bottom line is that for established fans of Ashkenazy, his personality comes through here in full, and he seems to wrestle with Bach in the way the true greats do".

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MusicWeb international

2022 November

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By

Dominy Clements

2022 November

"Recommended: First of all, there is the recording which is stunningly immediate, capturing every nuance of the instrument used, a very fine 2018 built harpsichord from Prague ... Esfahani's performances are full of expressive flexibility and arguably more the kind of playing you might expect from a pianistic interpreter, balancing that fine line between magnificent artistic inventiveness and distorting Bach's currently accepted idiom ... and the whole collection is again given an impressive sheen through his playing, the academic feel of these pieces made as entertaining as you are ever likely to hear them ... A marvellous listening experience that is going straight into my collection of Bach favourites".

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The observer

d. 27. Aug. 2022

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By

Fiona Maddocks

d. 27. Aug. 2022

"Playing a 2018 instrument made in Prague, where he now lives, Esfahani gives grandeur and clarity to Bach's familiar Italian Concerto. The short opening movement sounds pliant and majestic, the slow movement a sensuous dialogue between fluid, exploratory right hand and the steadying, lute-like left. In the last-movement presto, Esfahani takes wing at top speed and with glittering virtuosity. The colours he brings to all the works here - including the capriccio in B flat "on the departure of his beloved brother" - make us revel anew in the sonic capabilities of the harpsichord".

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Jyllands-posten

d. 22. Nov. 2014

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By

Jens Povlsen

d. 22. Nov. 2014

"Det er den store og fyldige flygellyd, Vladimir Ashkenazy svælger i på sin nye Bachindspilning.Den aldrende klavertroldmand går hverken vildt eller radikalt til værks, når han tager fat i Bach, men han viser igen en sikker hånd som fortolker. Også selv om det indimellem er kedeligt at følge hans vej gennem gamle Bachs fine tonebrus".

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Kristeligt dagblad

d. 24. May 2017

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By

Peter Dürrfeld

d. 24. May 2017

"Den 31-årige polak foretrækker gennemgående tempi til den hurtige side, og det giver mange af stykkerne en lettere karakter, end mange Bach-entusiaster vil være vant til. Programmet er der imidlertid ikke noget i vejen med ... [I] Jesus bleibet meine Freude går han imidlertid så meget ned i tempo, at det tangerer det ubærligt langsomme. Men måske er det meningen, at denne cd skal ende i meditativ inderlighed".

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Politiken

d. 6. Mar. 2017

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By

Thomas Michelsen

d. 6. Mar. 2017

"Det er blæret Bach, Blechaz leverer, og han bruger erfaringerne som Chopin-specialist med måde, så musikken raffineres, men uden at den taber sin sjæl. Det er også Bach med eftertanke. Men savner man et helt straight, umiddelbart og forfriskende forskud på sommerens solskin, skal man bare begynde med Bachs ' Italiensk koncert', som Blechacz spiller suverænt.".

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Financial Times

d. 17. Oct. 2014

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Andrew Clark

d. 17. Oct. 2014

"Ashkenazy, playing a standard grand piano, is a no-nonsense interpreter. Performances are crisp and clear, never sentimentalised, and capture the freshness of the music as if it he has found a new love".

BBC music magazine

2017 June

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Paul Riley (musikanmelder)

2017 June

"This is the sometime Warsaw Chopin Competition winner's first foray into Bach on disc, and the programme is mostly astutely chosen. As well as the "pops" there are the relatively little-known Duetti from Clavier-Übung III, often austere, enigmatic, and the ... B flat Partita's Gigue which takes no hostages in its whirligig velocity ... A disc that both bedazzles and bemuses".

Fono Forum

2017 März

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Frank Siebert

2017 März

"CDs des Monats: Sein Spiel fesselt durch die Balance zwischen farbenreicher Klangschönheit, rhythmischer Raffinesse und kontrapunktischer Strukturierungskunst ... Jeder Ton, jede Phrase, jeder delikat gestzte Akzent ist sinn- und erfahrungsgesättigt ... Er bringt ... die Struktur- und Gefühlswelt des Bach'schen Universums subtil zum Schwingen".

Diapason

2023 février

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Jean-Christophe Pucek

2023 février

BBC music magazine

2022 October

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By

Paul Riley (musikanmelder)

2022 October

"Since for Esfahani any performance starts from a position where everything is freshly, indeed forensically reconsidered, ClavierÜbung II offers particularly rich pickings ... The interpretive possibilities are catnip to the harpsichordist who proves himself stylishly bilingual ... despatched with robust and playful affection ... Altogether, a challenge to complacency that can't be ignored".

Klassisk musik

2005, nr. 7-8

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2005, nr. 7-8

Kristeligt dagblad

d. 11. Mar. 2002

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d. 11. Mar. 2002

The gramophone

2017 May

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Harriet Smith

2017 May

"A strikingly personal programme ... The Fantasia and Fugue in A minor is impressive, the latter a dazzling affair, not least for Blechacz's sheer control over the textures at quiet dynamics ... He is patently a pianist who enjoys Bach's extremes ... and his way with Bach's counterpoint is unfailingly imaginative".

Diapason

2017 mars

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Gaëtan Naulleau

2017 mars

"Vurdering: Diapason d'or".

The gramophone

2022 Awards

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Philip Kennicott

2022 Awards

"In his public statements, and perhaps a bit more temperately in his actual performances, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahany has declared independence from any puritanical or dogmatic application of historical performance practice. In this recording ... he makes that independence even more explicit, greatly expanding the dynamic and expressive capacity of the harpsichord ... But Esfahani isn't just showing off an instrument. His ornamentation and articulation are inventive and engaging ... This is edgy, hyper-attentive playing, with rhythmic figures etched with a sharp, swift and precise stylus ... such that the recording itself becomes not just a collection of works by Bach but a performer's manifesto".