Bergen International Festival 2019 English catalogue FiB Katalog EN 2019 lowres single pages | Page 52

052
T RO L D H AU G E N
T RO L D SA LE N
with Mahan Esfahani
DAT E/ T I M E
Friday 31 May
at 19:30
1:20
AD D I T I O N A L
IN FO RM ATI O N
Mahan Esfahani
is also performing
with Michala Petri
in Håkonshallen
Saturday 01 June
at 19:30,
see p. 45.
T IC KET
Standard: 490
Senior: 441
Under 30: 190
FiB Fordel: 392
BT Fordel: 367
T RAN SP O RT
Transport
included in ticket,
see p. 14.
FOU N DAT I ON S
The Goldberg Variations
m
D U RAT IO N
BE RGE N INTE RN AT I ON AL
FE STIVAL 2019
From youthful rebellion to a
life’s work.
On the cover of the Goldberg Variations Johann
Sebastian Bach wrote ‘Composed for Music
Lovers, to Refresh their Spirits’. The work
opens with an aria, after which the composer
conjures up over thirty variations of the tune in
a work that, almost three hundred years later,
still fascinates the music lovers to whom he
dedicated it.
Iranian-American Mahan Esfahani took piano
lessons from his father before developing an
interest in the harpsichord as a teenager. In an
interview with American NPR (National Public
Radio), Esfahani relates how the sound of the
harpsichord annoyed his father, so his youthful
rebellion was to continue playing!
Two decades later he is the recipient of numer-
ous awards, including the BBC Music Magazine
Award for his recording of the Goldberg Variations.
052
‘Lots of things are old. Lots of traditions are old.
I like it because it’s beautiful. The harpsichord
enables you to hear much more subtlety, and
it has a sensual quality,’ he claims.
‘… [every 10 years or so] a recording of JS Bach’s
Goldberg Variations arrives that significantly
changes the way you hear the piece. So it is
with Mahan Esfahani …’
– PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Mahan Esfahani harpsichord
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Supported by The Savings Bank
Foundation DNB – Dextra Musica and
Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation
#FE STSPILLEN E19