Richard Egarr
Piano (period & modern)
‘The Bernstein of Early Music' — NPR Music, CD Review/ “Everything sounds newly minted, bursting with vitality”– BBC Music Magazine
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| Richard Egarr biography |
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| Richard Egarr discography |
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| Richard Egarr press kit |
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| Richard Egarr press quotes |
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| Richard Egarr sample conducting programmes |
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| Richard Egarr sample harpsichord recital programmes |
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Photos |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Richard Egarr (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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With Bach, the Charismatic Richard Egarr Captures Meyerson Hearts
D Magazine, Dallas
22 April 2011
Guest conductor Richard Egarr bounded onto the stage at Meyerson Symphony Center Thursday night for the first of three concerts this weekend with the Dallas Symphony. A husky fellow with a genial Yorkshire accent—wearing, incongruously, a black Chinese tunic—he immediately launched into a delightful and brief monologue in which he referred to the evening’s program as a “Bach extravaganza” and the Brandenburg Concertos as a “musical c.v.”
He was, in short, about as distant as he could possibly be in his approach to baroque music from last week’s guest conductor, Helmuth Rilling. Granted, a performance of Handel’s Messiah (the work Rilling presented) must necessarily be viewed differently than an evening devoted to the secular instrumental music of J.S. Bach. And, though there was good reason to have reservations about Rilling’s reading, there was much that was fundamentally sound. Furthermore, both Rilling and Egarr are clearly and firmly grounded in baroque performance practice.
A joyously busy rendition of the First Brandenburg Concerto opened the concert. Egarr found the wonderful but elusive structural logic contained in the episodic final movement.
Still seated at the piano, he produced a delightfully terse reading of the opening movement of the Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D, along with a beautifully delicate version of the Adagio movement of the same work.
The results, however, even allowing for the differences in the music of Bach and Handel, were light years apart. Where Rilling favored transparent textures and seemed, at times, to choose authenticity over expression and musicality, Egarr aimed shamelessly for the romantic implications of the music.Straddling, rather than sitting on, the artist bench at a modern concert grand piano (in the first half of the concert) and at a harpsichord (after intermission), he opted for a full, modern sound from the strings, and played up the dramatic, open-air aura implied in the wind parts in this music. Although he occasionally opted for excitement over precision, that’s the right choice to make in this music.
A joyously busy rendition of the First Brandenburg Concerto opened the concert. Egarr found the wonderful but elusive structural logic contained in the episodic final movement. Still seated at the piano, he produced a delightfully terse reading of the opening movement of the Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D, along with a beautifully delicate version of the Adagio movement of the same work.
Harpsichord replaced piano after intermission, reflecting an eclectic attitude on Eggar’s part that might be summed up as “whatever works best works best.” The orchestra, which had been playing at a reduced force of about three dozen musicians before intermission, was further reduced for the Fifth Brandenburg to a concertino, or solo ensemble, of three (harpsichord, flute, and violin) and a ripieno, or orchestral ensemble, of only four—one each on violin, viola, cello, and bass. Surprisingly, the drama and contrast was, if anything, enhanced rather than reduced by the smaller ensemble. Egarr and this small chamber ensemble captured the energy and subtle power of this work, and were rewarded by a surprisingly substantial—and well deserved—ovation for a relatively small work in the middle of a longer concert.
The larger ensemble of the first half returned for the final work on the agenda, the Orchestral Suite No. 4, with Egarr continuing to lead from the harpsichord, bringing his Dallas debut to a remarkable and memorable close. Dare we suggest that he should be strongly wooed by the DSO to fill the role of conductor in some future production of Messiah?
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