PIERRE HANTAÏ – LOUIS COUPERIN, FRANÇOIS COUPERIN, G.F. HANDEL, J.S. BACH & W. BYRD

May 30, 2024

Schedule

Date:

  • PIERRE HANTAÏ PLAYS LOUIS COUPERIN, FRANÇOIS COUPERIN, G.F. HANDEL, J.S. BACH, & WILLIAM BYRD
  • Date: Thursday, May 30, 2024
  • Timing: Doors open at 7:30 pm for an 8:00 pm start. Concert finishes ~9:30 pm.
  • Venue: Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G Street NW, Washington D.C. 20005
  • Metro: The venue is a 3 minute walk from the Metro Center Station exit on 12th and G St., and a 6 minute walk from McPherson Square metro.
  • Parking: Timed phone-paid parking is available on surrounding streets. Garage Parking is available at 1155 F Street NW and 1201 F Street NW for <$13 with entry after 5:00 pm and exit by 11:00. Be aware that many other parking garages don’t offer evening parking.


Pierre Hantaï, one of today’s most lauded and acclaimed harpsichordists, performs a selection of gorgeous works by Louis Couperin, François Couperin, G.F. Handel, William Byrd, and J.S. Bach. Pierre Hantaï, the recipient of many of the Classical music world’s top awards, is renowned for his thoughtful interpretations and remarkable virtuosity. This is a rare opportunity to hear this artist perform live in the U.S.

Pierre Hantaï was born in 1964 into a family of artists. During his childhood, he was passionately attracted to painting, but it was his encounter with the music of Bach that was to determine his future path. The harpsichord recordings of Gustav Leonhardt had a profound influence on him in this respect. He took his first steps in music at the age of ten, playing a great deal of chamber music with his brothers. At first he taught himself (on a small spinet) the repertory that interested him, before taking lessons with the American harpsichordist Arthur Haas. Ultimately, he was invited by Gustav Leonhardt to attend his classes in Amsterdam for two years. He was still very young when he began performing with the key personalities of the small world of early music, including the Kuijken brothers, Gustav Leonhardt, Philippe Herreweghe and Jordi Savall.

He became known to a wider audience with his recording of J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a work that he has since played over a hundred times throughout the world. He has often performed and recorded the Elizabethan repertory (Bull, Byrd, Farnaby), as well as Bach and Couperin, and has devoted himself to an in-depth exploration of the works of Domenico Scarlatti, of which he has made numerous recordings and with which he seeks to familiarise audiences. Today he enjoys appearing with his musical friends on the concert platform, among them Jordi Savall, his brothers Marc and Jérôme Hantaï, the recorder player Hugo Reyne, the violinist Amandine Beyer, and the harpsichordists Skip Sempé, Olivier Fortin, Aapo Häkkinen and Maude Gratton.

Pierre Hantaï’s recordings for various labels (Adda, Astrée-Auvidis, Opus 111, Virgin, Mirare) have received many prizes from the critics, including the Gramophone Award, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année. He has given masterclasses for academies in France and abroad. He directs his instrumental ensemble Le Concert Français and also appears as a guest conductor with several chamber orchestras.

Gramophone: ‘Hantaï shows what can be achieved by a virtuoso who commands perfect technical control in which nothing is rushed or scrambled – a touch of the keys from which every note speaks clearly, and an emotional eloquence in which melodies sing and a subtle strategy of spread chords, hesitations, accents, displacements, and articulations leads your ear to the music’s important notes, harmonies and rhythms.”

BBC Music Magazine: Hantaï has an “… intuitive understanding of all those subtle ingredients that make this music so compelling and utterly irresistible… No detail is lost.”

International Record Review: “…overwhelming, brilliant and passionate music-making”


USE DROPDOWN ARROW TO SELECT NUMBER OF SEATS

KEYBOARD VIEW SEATS ARE SOLD OUT

USE DROPDOWN ARROW TO SELECT NUMBER OF SEATS
  • Receipts for ticket purchases will be emailed within 12 hours of purchase.
  • Please note: ticket sales are final and refunds cannot be processed.
  • Ticket exchanges for another concert in the same Season are possible if requested +7 days out from the concert. Exchange request emails should be sent to Carolyn@CapriccioBaroque.org
  • In the unlikely event Capriccio has to cancel a concert, ticket holders will be reimbursed by mailed check.