Richard Egarr
Keyboardist and conductor Richard Egarr has been a figure of unusual versatility on the early music scene. He plays keyboards of various kinds, concentrating on the harpsichord, and has conducted both early music ensembles and modern symphony orchestras.
Egarr was born on August 7, 1963, in Lincoln in England's East Midlands. His first musical training came as a chorister at York Minster Cathedral, and he went on to study piano and organ at Chetham's School of Music. After earning his diploma as an organist at 16, Egarr became an organ scholar at Manchester Cathedral and then at Clare College, Oxford. He also took harpsichord courses at Oxford and earned his degree as a harpsichordist in 1986. Egarr went on for further studies with David Roblou at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then for private lessons in Amsterdam with the famed harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. In 1991, he made his recording debut as a harpsichordist, releasing an album of music by Frescobaldi on the Globe Records label. Beginning in 1994, he made one of the few recording cycles of the complete keyboard works of Johann Jakob Froberger. Egarr landed a position as harpsichordist of the London Baroque ensemble and then, in 1995, became director of Amsterdam's Academy of the Begijnhof. Beginning in the late '90s, he often conducted London's Hanover Band ensemble.
With flourishing careers as both keyboardist and conductor, Egarr was named director of the Academy of Ancient Music, succeeding longtime director Christopher Hogwood, in 2006. He stepped down from that position in 2021 and was succeeded by Laurence Cummings. Egarr has conducted a wide variety of other groups and performances, including the ensembles Tafelmusik and the Handel and Haydn Society, modern-instrument groups, including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and a unique staged version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, at England's Glyndebourne Festival in 2007. In 2019, he was named music director of San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and he has been principal guest conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, Netherlands. Egarr has concertized worldwide on the harpsichord and is also one-half of an acclaimed Baroque duo with violinist Andrew Manze.
Egarr made notable recordings as a harpsichordist through the early 2000s decade. Many of his early recordings appeared on the Globe Records label, but beginning in 2000, he recorded for Harmonia Mundi. His recording debut as a conductor came on that label in 2008 with an album of Handel organ concertos in which he performed as soloist and conducted the Academy of Ancient Music from the keyboard. In the late 2010s, he also recorded for the Linn label; his releases there include a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, and in 2019, he issued an album of keyboard music by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. As director of the Academy of Ancient Music, he released albums on that ensemble's in-house label, including a recording of J.L. Dussek's Messe solemnelle in 2020 and a pair of Mozart piano concertos with fortepianist Robert Levin in 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Bach, Handel & D. Scarlatti: (Viola da) Gamba Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, Richard Egarr
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 28 Aug 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos
Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 3 Oct 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach : Orchestral Suites
Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr
Chamber Music - Released by Academy of Ancient Music on 7 Nov 2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Concerti grossi Op.3, Sonata a5 (Georg Friedrich Händel)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 13 Feb 2007
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 21 & 24
Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr, Robert Levin
Classical - Released by Academy of Ancient Music on 3 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 4 (Richard Egarr, Academy of Ancient Music, George Frideric Handel)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 21 Dec 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
One Byrde in Hande
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 25 May 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Operatic Arias
Emma Bell, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Richard Egarr
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 1 Sep 2005
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The French Suites
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 27 May 2016
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell: Keyboard Suites & Grounds (Richard Egarr)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 9 Sep 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fantasias, Toccatas & Variations
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 8 Nov 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: 8 'Great' Suites for Keyboard
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 27 Jan 2014
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Handel : 12 Solo Sonatas Op. 1
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 21 Dec 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Complete Partitas, BWV 825-830
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 24 Feb 2017
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: St. John Passion
Classical - Released by Academy of Ancient Music on 7 Feb 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Continuo
London Baroque, Charles Medlam, Richard Egarr, William Hunt
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Jan 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Sonatas for Violin & Piano Op. 137 Nos. 1, 2, 3 & Op. 162
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 9 Oct 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The English Suites
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 25 Feb 2013
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Gibbons: Selected Harpsichord Works
Classical - Released by Globe on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Fantasias & Rondos (Richard Egarr)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 7 Aug 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Froberger: The Complete Keyboard Works, Vol. 4
Classical - Released by Globe on 19 Aug 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo