Giles Farnaby News
English composer
- harpsichord
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- composer, Virginalist
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2024-04-24
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2020-12-05 22:15:44
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is essentially a collection of late Rennaisance and early Baroque keyboard music that stems from manuscripts owned by Viscount Fitzwilliam and bequeathed to Cambridge University in 1816. The composers constitute a Who’s Who of the period. Works by John Bull, Giles Farnaby, and William Byrd predominate, although Thomas Tomkins, Orlando Gibbons, […]
2019-10-27 08:51:37
Eccentric, passionate harpsichordist, in a ménage à cinq: the lives of Violet Gordon-Woodhouse
[…] not quite homo-erotic but at least homo-social about the men's relations, and may be more. Clearly some had 'outside interests' but Violet was the light around which these moths flitted, but what did they get up to when they retired to the dark?And Violet the musician? You can get a CD remastering of her recordings originally issued as volume three of Pearl's Great Virtuosi of the Harpsichord, which includes recordings of Purcell, Bach, Rameau, Couperin, Farnaby, Scarlatti, John Bull, Handel, Byrd and Haydn [see MusicWeb International for a review of the disc, and it is still available from Amazon]. And there is an admirable YouTube compilation, embedded below which includes a number of smaller pieces, an interview with her as well as Bach's Italian Concerto [embedded below].Elsewhere on this blog An intoxicating concert - that is the magic of song: Walt Whitman's bicentenary celebrated at London Song Festival (★★★★★) […]
2018-11-26 16:22:49
Esfahani breathes new life into English virginalist classics
[…] 'A compendium of keyboard works by the so-called 'English virginalists', whose music speaks with a quiet power,' writes Kate Bolton-Porciatti. 'These works have sometimes been handled as trifles or decorative miniatures, but Iranian-American harpischordist Mahan esfahani treats them as profoundly expressive and introspective works. Here measured, there free, his readings highlight the ebb and flow of their poetry and prose; phrases and rhetorically articulated.' The Passinge Mesures Works by Bull, Byrd, Dowland, Farnaby, Gibbons, Inglot, and Tomkins Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)
2017-06-10 13:04:41
Mahan Esfahani Wigmore Hall, 5th June 2017 Thomas Tomkins – Pavane in A Minor Giles Farnaby – Woody-Cock Henry Cowell – Set of Four WF Bach – Sonata E Flat Major Steve Reich (arr Esfahani) – Piano Phase The harpsichord is certainly not my favourite instrument. (Electric guitar since you ask). More than happy listening to it tinkling away as continuo in the best of Baroque but less persuaded of its solo virtues. Yet in the spirit of adventure, with an appealing programme and with Mr Esfahani’s reputation as one of the best in the harpsichord business, this was worth a shot. (For those that don’t know £15 for these lunchtime recitals at the best chamber music venue in the world is a bargain so, if you work locally, get in). Now a cursory glance at previous posts will show that I am a sucker for liking most of […]
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