On Thursday 10th March 2022, Mahan Esfahani will give the world premiere of Bent Sørensen’s new harpsichord concerto Sei Anime at the Griegshalle with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Andris Poga.
The work was written for and is dedicated to Mahan himself, and will receive further Danish and UK premieres later this year with Mahan at the keyboard, with co-commissioners Odense Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Gaudenz, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ludovic Morlot. According to the composer, Sei Anime’s six movements “form the traces of a French Suite, as we know it from i.a. Bach’s wonderful harpsichord suites, a major source of inspiration for this work”.
Mahan Esfahani has made it his life's mission to rehabilitate the harpsichord in the mainstream of concert instruments – recent world premieres that he has given include Movement for Harpsichord and Strings by Daniel Kidane with the New World Symphony in 2021, Poul Ruders’ Harpsichord Concerto in 2020 with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and co-commissioned by the Royal Scottish National Opera (to be released on OUR Recordings in May 2022), and Insects for solo harpsichord by Michael Berkeley at Aldeburgh Festival, also in 2020. He has also commissioned and premiered works from composers such as George Lewis, Anahita Abbasi, Sunleif Rasmussen, Laurence Osborne, Gary Carpenter, Harold Meltzer, Elena Kats-Chernin and Miroslav Srnka.
Find more information about the performance in Bergen at the link here. To hear Mahan in future performances of Sei Anime, click here (Odense) and here (CBSO).
