RUDERS HARPSICHORD CONCERTO Mahan Esfahani
Ruders Esfahani (hpd); Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (cond. Segerstam) OUR Recordings (2022) New this month on OUR Recordings is Mahan Esfahani’s incredible performance of Poul Ruders’ 2020 ‘Harpsichord Concerto’ with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam. (OK. I think I know what a digital EP is...) The first movement ‘Avanti risoluto’ is filmic and almost tender in its careful but inevitable escalation. There is an oddly yet entirely pleasing synthetic quality, engendered by the amplification of orchestral instruments. It is in this manner that the blend of sound is achieved. The effect itself is, of course, unique. And very distant from any historic mould in familiarity with Baroque works by Vivaldi, for example. The otherworldly mesh of strings and brass is strange but wonderous indeed; a mellow foil to the sparkly and spiky solo. The next movement ‘Andante’ is a touch more romantic (with a small ‘r’) although Modernist and spacey. Single notes on each beat cut in