Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord

Wednesday, February 23, 2022 - 7:30 PM
American Philosophical Society

American Philosophical Society

Benjamin Franklin Hall,
427 Chestnut Street Learn More

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About This Performance

This concert is part of the Susan Giesecke Bloom & A. Charles Winkelman Artist Debut Series.

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani approaches one of the greatest masterpieces of the Baroque repertoire with fresh eyes. “I cannot deny that I find a great deal of narrative and life beyond the score when I play [Bach’s Goldberg Variations], he says. “They offer us a view both of someone looking back on his decades-long aesthetic transformation and of an innovative and sensitive musician responding to new trends and techniques around him.” In his PCMS debut, Esfahani takes us on a “magical musical journey… showing Bach’s rich and varied tapestry of writing, from muted to playful, glittering to mannered, exquisite and delightful, stately and melancholy, spooky and jazzy, and, at times, positively contemporary” (Bachtrack).

Bach: Aria with Thirty Variations, BWV 988, Goldberg Variations

Watch the livestreamed concert via the video player below.

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Special thanks to Susan Giesecke Bloom and A. Charles Winkelman with support from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Dot and Rick Nelson, Sid Kaplan, and the American Philosophical Society for their support of our livestream series, and for helping us deliver world-class artistry to audiences around the globe.