Steven Devine
Harpsichord, fortepiano, chamber organ, clavichord
“Rising star of both the keyboard and the conductor’s podium, Steven Devine follows his acclaimed Chandos recording of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with this fine interpretation of the Goldberg Variations. He brings a scholarly authority to this pillar of the repertoire, offering in his sleeve notes many insights into Bach’s thinking behind the 30 variations, an authority he matches with a masterly technique at the keyboard, turning this into a bravura display of the harpsichordist’s art. Highly recommended.”
The Observer, June 2011
Since 2007 Steven has been the harpsichordist with London Baroque in addition to his position as Co-Principal keyboard player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He is also the principal keyboard player for The Gonzaga Band, Apollo and Pan, The Classical Opera Company, I Fagiolini and performs regularly with many other groups around Europe. He has recorded over thirty discs with other artists and ensembles and made three solo recordings. His next major recording, Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Chandos Records, was released in July.
Steven made his London conducting debut in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall and is now a regular performer there – including making his Proms directing debut in August 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He will be returning there for the 2011 season with the same group. He has conducted the Mozart Festival Orchestra in every major concert hall in the UK and also across Switzerland. In opera, Steven has worked at the Comische Oper in Berlin and alongside Paul Mcreesh throughout France. With Opera Restor’d, he has conducted at Wigmore Hall in London, at the Warwick, Lake District, Stour Norwich and English Haydn Festivals. Steven is a Music Director for New Chamber Opera in Oxford and with them has conducted performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s La Finta Semplice, Stradella’s Il Trespolo Tutore, Rossini’s Il Comte Ory, Handel’s Xerxes, Arne’s Artaxerxes, Galuppi’s Il Mondo Reverso. He has just directed the first performance of the newly-acquired score of Cavalli’s Erismena this Summer. For the Dartington Festival Opera he has conducted Handel’s Orlando and will return next year with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
Passionate about the role of music in education, Steven is a regular member of the OAE education team, Professor of Fortepiano at Trinity College of Music and a visiting teacher, adjudicator and examiner for many other institutions.
One of Steven’s proudest (and longest) associations is with the Finchcocks Musical Museum in Kent where holds the post of Director Development.
Please contact us for a fully updated biography for concert programmes
Programmes
Shakespeare songs – Julia Doyle and Steven Devine
A lovely programme to be given its premiere at the
Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands Park on Wednesday 11 April 2012
If Music be the Food of Love: Henry Purcell
Take O Take those lips away: John Weldon
Who is Sylvia: Richard Leveridge
Chaconne: John Blow
Dry those Eyes (Tempest): Weldon
Dear Pretty Youth (Tempest): Purcell
Suite in E Minor: Giovanni Battista Draghi
Three Songs from The Fairy Queen: Purcell
When Daisies Pied: Thomas Arne
Where the Bee Sucks: Arne
Goldberg Variations
Steven Devine performs Bach’s monumental work for solo harpsichord in its entirety. He prefaces the work with a spoken introduction highlighting the structure, the historical context and the genesis of the work.
The introduction lasts 10 minutes and the work is presented, complete, lasting around 70 minutes without an interval.
connections
A “chain” of harpsichord works by
Domenico & Alessandro Scarlatti,
Pasquini
Vivaldi/Bach
Arne
Roseingrave
A framework of six sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti opens into a wealth of harpsichord masterpieces. Each piece is “linked” to the preceding one by a relationship between the composers. In some cases it is that of student/teacher, in others that of admirer and inspiration. A newly-discovered Toccata by Alessandro Scarlatti, a partially-improvised sonata by Pasquini, a concerto by Vivaldi arranged by Bach: these are just some of the entertaining and dramatic items in this innovative programme.
The Virtuoso Harpsichord
RAMEAU: Suite in A minor (1728)
FISCHER: Uranie – Suite in D minor
and works by
Froberger, Scarlatti & Bach
featuring a new work by
Gabriel Jackson
Rameau’s sublime A minor suite contains arguably his most famous composition for harpsichord, the Gavotte et doubles. In addition to lively dance movements, character pieces display the composer’s wit and inventiveness. There is even a piece entitled Les Trois Mains (“Three Hands”)!
This contrasting programme presents the Rameau Suite with a German suite of the same period. J.C.F. Fischer, 20 years Bach’s senior, was probably a major influence on the younger composer’s keyboard style. Uranie ends with one of the highlights of the harpsichord repertoire – a monumental Passacaille. In addition to the two large-scale works, shorter compositions by other major Baroque composers are featured. Gabriel Jackson’s Toccata/Ground, written for Steven and premiered last year is a fabulous synthesis of old forms and a new compositional language for the instrument.
Discography
Goldberg Variations
‘…a wonderful collection of dance movements, interspersed with passionate canons and virtuosic hand-crossings, all framed by a simple unpretentious Aria.’
Steven Devine’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is released by Chandos on 31 May 2011
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Photographer: John Buckman at Magnatune
Related News
Steven Devine’s Southbank recital – Independent review
Posted on April 4th, 2012
Carole Cerasi and Steven Devine give recitals at Southbank Bach Weekend
Posted on March 23rd, 2012
New programmes from Julia Doyle with Steven Devine, and the LHO
Posted on March 9th, 2012