Philharmonia Baroque / Handel, Locke, Purcell, Arne, Lawes
“Egarr displayed exquisite control over the emotional direction of pieces, producing dynamic movements with fine-tuned transitions between pristine calms and violent crescendos. The orchestra’s rendition of Matthew Locke’s accompaniment to Shakespeare’s The Tempest commenced with quiet violin bows gracefully giving whole notes that hummed with a divine purity. These delicate sounds were directed by Egarr, who gestured with precise gentleness, as if he were carefully crocheting a scarf for the lead violinist. In a flash, the orchestra led the unsuspecting audience into torrents of eighth notes played at a furious pace. The remaining movements were left with a foreboding quality, balanced between deceptive tranquility and cataclysmic intensity.”
The Daily Californian, January 2012
Couperin Complete Harpsichord Works (Harmonia Mundi)
“…Every note flows with exquisite flexibility and natural spontaneity, in particular in the major pieces, such as the genial and intense preludes, the overwhelming chaconnes in which colour of harmony, melody and dissonance merge into most elegant phrasing, controlled in its most intimate nuances by exploiting all the resources of the instrument: the sound breathes, sings, dances, conquers the listener with every turn, every cadence.”
Eldiadecordoba.es, January 2012
“His performances of the densely ornamented, driven chaconnes and passacailles stand out owing to his grave excitement and command of grandly sweeping gesture. He also displays considerable imaginative variety in the strings of courantes and sarabandes… Egarr’s refined yet colourful approach to the rest of the music, especially the grave and cerebral allemandes is irreproachable... This recording is both a magnificent achievement and a profoundly pleasurable experience.”
International Record Review, January 2012
“An impressive display of imaginative interpretation… Egarr’s playing yields compelling variety and prismatic possibilites in the preludes, dance movements and majestic chaconnes, organised by the performer into well-balanced suites.
…There are two compelling reasons to own this set: it is endlessly entertaining and vibrant music; and… it is presented complete. Louis Couperin derserves the honour of a new, meticulously performed and recorded complete edition, and lovers of the harpsichord repertoire shouldn’t be without one.”
Gramophone, December 2011
“Here, the roles of composer and performer merge, and Egarr’s realisations of these suggestive sketches combine improvisatory flair with a controlled awareness of their underlying structure… Egarr rises to the challenge with playing that is by turns pliant, poetic and balletic.”
BBC Music Magazine, 5 stars, October 2011
“... Egarr has thoroughly thought out this music, taking the listener over a few structural hurdles and making the music fully comprehensible by pointing up the various musical and intellectual hooks. Aside from that, his interpretation is brilliant in the widest sense of the word; his brilliant manual dexterity goes without saying, but brilliant, too, are his sense of purpose, his instinctive grasp of style, his assured organisation of the material and his immaculate presentation; listen to the lush cascades of ornamentation, the way he revels in the delicious harmonies, and allows space for the dense writing to unfold naturally. Egarr is very good at detailed articulation, and brings out each line without undermining the harmonic structure.
...Egarr has already shown beyond dispute his stylistic competence in both the standard and the more obscure harpsichord repertoire. His hugely artistic and intellectual temperament seems to gain the richest inspiration from the byways of the repertoire: Couperins music is for Egarr a real motivator. And so he plays these phrases with brilliance and yet with a seriousness which is particularly striking as it relates to the French musical tradition, whilst never losing his lightness of touch, thus keeping a delicate balance in his interpretation....”
Klassik.com, September 2011
“This is a set that should win a lot of new friends for the music of Louis Couperin... Christophe Rousset played two of Louis’s suites at the start of Kilkenny Arts Festival, but the tone and tuning of the two instruments Richard Egarr uses for his complete survey bring an individuality and depth to the sound that simply weren’t possible in Kilkenny. There’s also a greater ebb and flow of tension, especially in the movement and sonic clashes of the rhythmically free preludes (a Louis Couperin speciality), and an impressive slow surge in the chaconnes.”
The Irish Times, Five Stars, August 2011
“...wonderfully varied keyboard writing; Egarr revels in the variety, both harmonic and rhythmic, that this music contains, and the interpretative opportunities it offers... genuinely exhilarating and constantly surprising.”
The Guardian, July 2011
An Evening with Stokowski / Brussels Philharmonic
“This vivid act of reclamation has so much to teach, and to enjoy. It shows that Stokowski’s arrangements were made not only with love but acuity; that their flair and potery may survive beyond his own performances, given the flair and commitment displayed by the Brussels Philharmonic, in which they outshine many ritzier but stiffer rivals (such as Wolfgang Sawallisch and Stoki’s own Philadelphia Orchestra on EMI). It reveals, as Richard Egarr remarks in the booklet, that for all the ‘pure tone’ of historical instruments, ‘one can do just as much justice to that music with other means'. Most of all it advances the need, no less pressing now than in Stoki’s heyday, for truly recreative interpreters.”
Gramophone, June 2011
“…ce programme passionnant, et l'on entendra avec un plaisir délicieusement coupable.”
“…a passionate programme, to be listened to with deliciously guilty pleasure.”
Le Monde, March 2011
“How does someone who has learnt conducting with Gustav Leonhardt come to love Stokowski’s adaptations of Bach or Purcell? All credit to the harpischord specialist and multi-faceted musician Richard Egarr, for brushing aside such scruples and for audibly revelling in the opulence of the controversial “Stoky“. He grasps the sound-world of Stokowski and his sense of the symphonic dimensions of Bach’s music (among others) and makes it his own. The Brussels Philharmonic from Flanders follow Egarr to a tee, hanging on every gesture, following every gradation of soundm, variation of tempo or change of colour. And Egarr goes one further! He follows Stoky’s example and includes one of his own Handel arrangements: an almost militaristic Water Music – completely in keeping with historical evidence, since in this music Handel was seeking to win over the warmongering King George. This disc will bring tears to the eyes of the purists, but for everybody else it is a feast for the ears!”
MDR, February 2011
“The calorific but translucent sound which Egarr draws from his Brussels players is sheer class…
Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas smoulders wildly, aided by throbbing basses, but the highlights are two more obscure works – Cesti’s Tu mancavi a tormentarmi and Palestrina’s Adoramus te, both transformed into wildly emotive laments for massed strings. Egarr also gives his own Stokowski-indpired versions of music from Handel’s Water Music and Ockeghem’s Intemerata Dei Mater, the latter containing some of the most sonorous low wind and brass playing I’ve heard.”
The Arts Desk, January 2011
Dallas Symphony / Bach Brandenburg Concertos
“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.”
D Magazine, April 2011
Academy of Ancient Music / Brandenburg Concertos, Perth Concert Hall
"Egarr ensured the orchestra reflected Haydn's musical scene painting with Technicolor brilliance. This was a performance of extreme contrasts, dramatically charged and highly characterised from start to finish."
The Australian, February 2011
“High points included some delightfully fruity horn playing and affectionate renderings of the quirky trios in the first concerto; a jaw-dropping harpsichord solo by Egarr in the fifth; exquisitely despatched clarino work by Blackadder in the second; and some fiery fingerboard gymnastics by violinist Rudolfo Richter in the fourth.“
The West Australian, February 2011
Academy of Ancient Music / Wigmore Hall
“...It was the director and harpsichordist, Richard Egarr, who unblocked my mind to how beautiful a harpsichord can sound. All the honky tonk was gone, all the smashing, bashing monochrome: individual notes disappearing into a sort of tintinnabulant gloop. Egarr brought a kind of playful whimsicality, a quietude: varying tempo, teasing, joking, knowing, full of light and shade.”
The Times, February 2011
“Egarr’s delicate embellishments hovered with characteristic poise above the wash of strings, his trickling playfulness with ornamentation and rhythm finding a natural home in Bach’s shapely lines.“
The Arts Desk, January 2011
Recital at Wigmore Hall with Iestyn Davies
“This was an evening of baroque virtuosity from one of the most accomplished countertenors and from quite the twinkliest pair of harpsichord hands in the business.
Add to this the inventive skills of Richard Egarr, improvising, embellishing and tinting every turn of phrase in his accompaniments, and an irresistible musical chemistry is created…
…Egarr climbed up the opening scale with droll understatement, only to tease it into transformation and to delight in its more wayward harmonies. His Handel D minor Suite was a triumph of fancy over form… A delicious unpredictability characterised Egarr’s accompanying.”
The Times, January 2011
Tafelmusik, Toronto / Mozart, Haydn
“What Egarr does best is capture the spirit, and he wastes no time and spares no energy to convey it to the orchestra and audience. Nobody would think that an 18th-century fortepiano can render solos more beautifully than a modern concert piano. But played with ease, fluidity and sensitivity that Egarr brings to the keyboard, the fortepiano made an ideal companion to Tafelmusik’s period instruments.
…Egarr’s solo work in the evening’s two concertos — Mozart’s No. 12 and Haydn’s No. 11, both written around 1782 — was notable for his silken keyboard technique and for the elegance in which he switched from following the score and leading the orchestra to improvising freely during the solo cadenzas.”
Toronto Star, December 2010
Bach Brandenburg Concertos / Academy of Ancient Music
“The Academy of Ancient Music, under director Richard Egarr at the harpsichord is one of our leading period music groups – and it showed.
No. 1 was the opener, with its strident horns, and, once they had flexed their muscles and shed a little initial stiffness, they really started to show us their quality, especially the oboes and bassoon. No. 6 is for strings only, rhythmically syncopated, the players relaxed and communicating: sheer delight. Then No. 2, with trumpet, recorder and oboe to the fore. The fiendishly difficult natural trumpet was gloriously joyful, giving the work a freedom and élan which raised our spirits – and the audience to its feet.
After the interval, No. 5, with its spectacular harpsichord cadenza, played by Egarr with polished panache, alongside splendid string and flute accompaniment. No. 3, again all strings and continuo, gave these superb string players a chance to express themselves, and they took it with buoyancy and animation, through to the frisky finale. Finally No. 4, for recorders and violin and strings, played with breathtaking virtuosity and chirpy jauntiness. Suddenly it was over, smiles on every face and a palpable sense of satisfied good humour to accompany the rapturous applause. What music, astonishing in its variety, its colours and its differing textures, each instrument making a unique contribution: and what players.”
Bath Chronicle, October 2010
Das Wohltemperierte Clavier, Book 2 (Harmonia Mundi)
“Egarr explores the poetic content of the music with unhurried tempos, generous punctuation and eloquently shaped phrasing. This much is clearly apparent in his reflective account of the C major Prelude with which Book 2 begins. Allowing more time than any competing version on disc, Egarr discloses greater depths in this beautiful piece than his rivals…
…Egarr demonstrates his sensitivity to Bach’s stylistic idiom through his use of ornaments and the rhetoric: the D major Prelude, for instance, is treated here with appropriately gallant panache. Egarr’s rhythmic elasticity heightens Bach’s conversational dimension, welcoming us to the dialogue.”
BBC Music Magazine, November 2010
Gramophone Awards, nominated in ‘Baroque Instrumental’ category
Handel Trio Sonatas (Harmonia Mundi)
“The interplay between the AAM is Baroque chamber-playing of the very highest order: sincerely conversational, emotive and finely nuanced. Egarr and Crouch are an outstanding continuo team, providing attentive yet uncluttered support to the two upper instruments. Brown and Beznosiuk play together with touching eloquence...: marvellous music-making.”
Gramophone, September 2010
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
“What a firecracker he is. Showman, raconteur, wit, outrageous entertainer, dynamo and spontaneous energiser of music: he does the lot, with style… His Mozart was taut, crisp and stylish… he gave scorching performances of Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture and a total-energy account of the Eighth Symphony, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra playing like a band possessed.”
Glasgow Herald, March 2010
“It was a concert packed with novel touches, elemental brusqueness and raw energy. If this Beethoven symphony is about making a short, shart point, Egarr made it uncompromisingly, and with a sense of connection that permeated everymoment of this intriguing programme.”
The Scotsman, March 2010
“These are outstanding accounts with impeccable intonation and consistently warm tone at every dynamic level, and excellent balance across a wide stereo spectrum”
BBC Music Magazine, December 2009
“Egarr’s performances of Handel’s Op.7 organ concertos … are fantastically exciting, often surprising, sometimes whimsical, occasionally eccentric, always compelling”
Early Music Today, October/November 2009
“The Academy of Ancient Music are intimate conversationalists, alert to every nuance of Egarr’s abiding wit and pungent repartee”
BBC Music Magazine, October 2009
“Everything sounds newly-minted, bursting with vitality and instinct with risk”
BBC Music Magazine, October 2009
“Egarr’s choice of registrations is consistently delightful and his playing sparkles with vitality and character. The musicianship of the Academy of Ancient Music is outstanding, and their articulate and dynamically shaded playing is subtle and responsive to a sentimental spectrum.”
Gramophone, August 2008
“When I heard that England’s Academy of Ancient Music had hired keyboardist and conductor Richard Egarr, I was absolutely delighted… I’ve been waiting for a conductor like Egarr to come along for some time… it wouldn't be a stretch to call him "the Bernstein of Early Music"… he’s one of the most exciting and delightful musicians of our time”
USA National Public Radio, March 2008
“Rarely has the Ancient seemed so intrinsic to the Now”
Louisville Courier-Journal, February 2008
Richard Egarr's 2008 USA tour with the Academy of Ancient Music
“Academy performs with vigor, virtuosity"
The Academy of Ancient Music has entered a period of revitalization under its new music director, harpsichordist Richard Egarr.”
David Weininger, Boston Globe, February 2008
“The Ancient becomes new again"
There may be ensembles that articulate the pleasures of Baroque repertoire more persuasively than the Academy of Ancient Music, but I highly doubt it. The vast and furious catalog of satisfactions heard last night at St. Francis-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church -- where the British-based AAM played as part of this season's Speed Endowed Concert Series -- was enough to send specialists and lay listeners alike into giddy shivers of delight.
Egarr not only played his instrument with consummate vigor and skill (most notably during J.S. Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058), he urged his 11 colleagues on in a similar imperative. All proved to be terrific advocates.
With their superlative qualities of attack and overall rhythmic acuity, melded to a way of swelling particular phrases with remarkably supple rubato, the AAM members were fascinating creatures of their art. Rarely has the Ancient seemed so intrinsic to the Now.”
The Louisville Courier-Journal, February 2008
“Under the Academy of Ancient Music’s new director, Richard Egarr, the orchestra sound as good as ever, perhaps even reinvigorated and a few degrees sparklier... Egarr could not have hoped for a better way to begin his tenure.”
Gramophone, October 2007
“The Academy of Ancient Music is in world-beating form once more … Egarr and the musicians play with dynamism and warmth which suggests that Egarr's tenure with this band is going to be a rewarding one. Long may it last.”
Gramophone, April 2007
“Spunky, beautifully polished performances"
The Times, March 2007
From Egarr's March 2006 US solo debut
"Egarr, with all his attention to Baroque tunings and aesthetics, had done something remarkable: He made us hear the variations in a totally new, or maybe an old, way."
Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News, March 2006
“This is why nothing can replace live concerts. You can buy the new recording of Bach's ‘Goldberg’ Variations by harpsichordist Richard Egarr, on the Harmonia Mundi label, and hear a note-perfect, brilliantly interpreted version of a masterpiece. Or you can go hear Egarr in person, watching and listening as he completely reinvents the music, lingering here and forging ahead there."
Seattle Times, March 2006
In recital with Steven Isserlis
“Whether through long hours of rehearsal or natural musical chemistry or both, this is a partnership that draws the best from each individual. If at times Isserlis and Egarr seemed like two unselfconscious children playing a game of physical and imaginative complexity beyond the watching adults' comprehension, their programming likewise verged on the cheeky. I don't know but this was an intoxicating debut and I can't wait to hear more from them.”
Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday, July 2002
With Portland Baroque Orchestra, conducting Handel's Messiah:
“Egarr's 'Messiah' was truly an impassioned pairing of opera and prayer. No pokerfaced pedantry here, but interpretation engendered in and expressed through human emotions; no ridiculously racing tempos, but a relaxed, sensual feel for phrasing and mood. Egarr's exuberance, vivid coloring and flexible rhythms were reflected not just by the orchestra but by the PBO Chorus and four soloists.”
Willamette Week, December 2001
“Possibly the Portland Baroque Orchestra's finest Messiah yet. Richard Egarr led with a combination of refinement and vitality, making Handel's music vivid, exciting and acutely expressive of the biblical texts. Egarr is an energetic but controlled conductor, and his good rapport with the ensemble was palpable... Even at low dynamics and gentle tempos, as in the overture that set much of the tone for the evening, there was a feeling of quiet excitement.”
The Oregonian, December 2001
German Reviews
"Bach korrekt und lebhaft interpretiert
“Das Wiener Kammerorchester eröffnete seinen Matineenzyklus im Konzerthaus unter dem Dirigenten und Cembalisten Richard Egarr mit vier der sechs Brandenburgischen Konzerte Bachs. Eine gute Wahl. Voll Verve und Spielfreude geht's durch die berühmten Werke. Mitunter bieten die Musiker stupende Leistungen in Sachen Fingerfertigkeit und Bravour... Das Wichtigste ist aber, dass man da einen harmonischen Gesamtklang hört. Herzhaft klingen die raschen Sätze, geradlinig und feinkörnig wird in den langsamen musiziert. Bach korrekt und lebhaft interpretiert.”
Wien Kronenzeitung, October 2002
“Auch Egarr - in Aschaffenburg längst kein Unbekannter mehr - fesselte zur Händelsuite sein Publikum durch eine klug disponierte und mit brillanter Fingerfertigkeit ausgeführte Interpretation, erwiesen sich beide Künstler in den Sonaten als kongeniale Disputanten im Netzwerk polyphoner Meisterschaft. In Klang und Gestaltung so nahe wie möglich und einem einzigen dynamischen Pulsschlag folgend boten sie die Werke aus einem Geist.”
Main Echo, August 2002
Recordings
Richard Egarr / Academy of Ancient Music / BACH Brandenburg Concertos
“The new Egarr-AAM Brandenburgs really blow. In a good way. They blow centuries of library dust off these pieces …Egarr & Co. are in it to win it”
Stereophile, June 2009
“…a hot traversal of Bach’s Brandenburg.”
The New York Times, June 2009
“a recording you must hear …the playing is revishing.
BBC Music Magazine, June 2009
“…your jaw might drop at the virtuosity.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2009
Richard Egarr / Academy of Ancient Music / HANDEL Organ Concertos, Op.4
“Here, Egarr conducts the Academy of Ancient Music while playing the organ. But he's also a versatile artist on all kinds of keyboards: historic organs, harpsichord, fortepiano, and modern piano. He plays music from many eras, and has a remarkable gift for combining subtle musical gestures with forward–moving, irrepressible rhythms.
While I've admired Egarr's recordings for some time, he's even better in person. His recent performance with the Portland Baroque Orchestra was one of the most exciting musical evenings I've had in years. The way he communicates with audiences reminds me of Leonard Bernstein's ability to engage listeners without talking down to them. He also matches Bernstein's onstage charisma, so it wouldn't be a stretch to call Egarr "the Bernstein of Early Music."
I've been waiting for a conductor like Egarr to come along for some time — a conductor who pursues historical authenticity but allows himself an emotional involvement often avoided by many other early-music specialists. While he has wonderful technique, he's much more than a virtuoso of finger work; Egarr is a virtuoso of nuance, of dancing rhythms and sparking melodies. He's one of the most exciting and delightful musicians of our time.”
Tom Manoff, NPR Music, March 2008
"Egarr gives wonderful, insightful, technically solid performances, tending to Handelian authenticity with his free, fancy, and liberal use of ornamentation, enlivened with a real ‘in the moment’ improvisational feel. ... the whole production, from Egarr's notes to the vibrant performances, has an air of good spirits and ensemble camaraderie, a situation that Handel himself certainly would have envied."
David Vernier, Classical Today, March 2008
"In every musical choice he makes, Egarr fashions fresh accounts of works that often play as stodgy standoffs between pompous organ and dutiful band. In a variety of moods, these pieces come off as engaging exchanges and advancements of musical ideas." Rating: Outstanding - Wild Applause.
Steve Winn, San Francisco Chronicle, March 2008
"The orchestra (which Mr. Egarr conducts from the keyboard) finds the bucolic heart of the composer as only an English group can. Mr. Egarr displays brilliant finger work and high spirits in the organ solos. He has retained just enough of his rhythmic capriciousness to keep things interesting."
Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News, March 2008
EGARR WINS THE MIDEM CLASSICAL AWARD FOR HANDEL'S ORGAN CONCERTOS OP.4
“Richard Egarr receives the Midem Classical Award in the Concerto category for his recording of Handel Organ Concertos op 4 on Harmonia Mundi.
A critical and popular favorite, the recording landed in the top five on Billboard’s Classical Chart, made Critics’ Best of 2008 lists, including that of NPR Performance Today’s Fred Child who noted Egarr's “light speed” improvisation. BBC Music magazine wrote, “there is a freshness and sense to what (Egarr) does which becomes more apparent with every hearing” and Gramophone rejoiced, “his playing sparkles with vitality and character.” Perhaps International Record Review summed it up best: ‘These elegant and characterful performances are simply too good to miss.’
Organ virtuoso Richard Egarr delivers a stirring rendition of George Frideric Handel's last published set of instrumental concertos. The andante opens with Egarr's exuberant flourish on the organ, answered with equal verve by the orchestra. Heard in this andante is the essence of the collection: Egarr's exciting command of the technical and emotional elements of these concertos, underpinned by the stellar performance of the Academy of Ancient Music.”
Philip Van Vleck, Billboard, August 2009