Richard Egarr

In Book I (1722) of his Well-Tempered Clavier, J.S. Bach set off on an unprecedented passage through all the tonalities available to him on the keyboard. Using the tuning which research suggests Bach himself advocated, Richard Egarr completes his acclaimed project with this inspired reading of Book II, where Bach (after a decade-long genesis) revisits his ambitious scheme to produce another monumental collection.

"No one can doubt that Egarr loves and understands Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. His technique and musical instincts can't be faulted." -
THE ABSOLUTE SOUND

"A thoughtful, well-recorded performance of one of the great monuments of Western music, on an instrument for which the composer conceived it, played by a dexterous, sympathetic, and well-informed musician." -
FANFARE

"This set shines revitalizing light on music we may have thought we knew inside out, but which is always loaded with surprises."
- SOUND STAGE

Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music conclude their award-winning Handel cycle with this dazzling traversal of the Trio Sonatas Op.2 and Op.5. These works, less frequently heard than much of Handel's output, are brilliantly crafted, exciting, and (above all) fun pieces of chamber music. The Italianate singing style of the melodic writing is both virtuosic and sonorous. Handel took Corelli's 'sonata da chiesa' model and with consummate ease, created sparklingly diverse and richly colorful works that are clearly stamped with his own unique stylistic signature.

"AAM has been reinvigorated since Richard Egarr assumed its directorship in 2006. He is not concerned to startle or shock for its own sake; rather he is determined to put the best musicological scholarship at the service of good music-making." - INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW

Handel’s last great published set of instrumental concertos, Organ Concertos Op. 7 arrived posthumously in 1761. Played here on a chamber organ by Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music, with real-time improvisations and enlarged continuo support, these magnificent concertos (including the beloved "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale") show Handel at his glorious and compositional best, and allow a concentrated view of his style from the last 20 years of his life.

"Mr. Egarr’s crisp, transparent readings...often seemed to draw their shape from the qualities of each key. He offered a few peculiar twists: most intriguing, his accenting in the C minor Prelude; his dramatic, driven performance of the E flat minor Prelude; and the almost sinister sound he gave the E minor Prelude and Fugue. And he made the most of the fantasialike flightiness of the B flat major Prelude and the dark, almost dissonant chromaticism of the Prelude and Fugue in B minor."

"As Mr. Egarr made his way through the final bars of the last fugue, it was hard not to wish he had only reached the intermission, with Book II still to come." - Allan Kozinn, Nov 19 2008 ( Full review)

Richard Egarr has worked with all types of keyboards performing repertoire ranging from 15th-century organ intabulations, to Dussek, Schumann and Chopin on early pianos, to Berg and Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is director of The Academy of the Begijnhof, Amsterdam, and is in great demand both as soloist and as accompanist for many of today’s finest artists. In chamber music, Richard forms an “unequalled duo for violin and keyboard'” (Gramophone) with violinist Andrew Manze. They have toured Europe and North-America with music from the Stylus Phantasticus and late baroque. This year they will return to the U.S. for a national tour in October 2007.

As a conductor, Egarr has presented a wide range of repertoire – from Baroque opera and oratorio, to works by 20th-century composers such as John Tavener and orchestral transcriptions by Stokowski. Egarr’s first encounter with the Academy of Ancient Music extends back to 1999 as harpsichordist in Christopher Hogwood’s production of Handel’s Rinaldo. In September 2006, Richard Egarr took up the post of Music Director, succeeding Hogwood who assumes the lifelong title of Emeritus Director. This season he returns to the U.S. with AAM in their debut tour under Egarr as their new music director.

Egarr has a prolific discography on harmonia mundi usa. As an exclusive artist he has made six recordings of music by J.S. Bach: the Harpsichord Concertos with Andrew Manze and AAM, the Gamba Sonatas with Jaap ter Linden, the Violin Sonatas with Manze and ter Linden, his acclaimed recital, “Per cembalo solo. . . ” (Gramophone Editor’s Choice); the monumental Goldberg Variations, hailed as “a spectacular disc” by the London Times and his most recent, The Well-Tempered Clavier played in Bach’s own tuning. Egarr’s recordings with Andrew Manze also include the Violin Sonatas of J.F. Rebel, Pandolfi, (Gramophone Award, 2000), Handel (2003 Grammy® nominee; Billboard ® Top Classical Chart), Corelli (Gramophone CD of the Month; the Prix Caecilia, 2003), Biber’s Rosary Sonatas (Edison Award 2005), Mozart’s Violin Sonatas, dubbed ‘the most stimulating and satisfying Mozart recording of the year.” (Chicago Tribune) and the recent recording of Schubert’s Sonatas for violin and piano.