"Carole Cerasi captures the seductive volatility of Jacquet's style to perfection... her playing has an innate elegance which brings this subtle and elusive music to vivid life"
(BBC Music Magazine, January 2012) "This music is performed with flair, vitality, panache and character by the Swedish-born harpsichordist Carole Cerasi (she teaches at the Menuhin and Guildhall schools). If this is, as I believe her first disc, I am delighted to roll out the red carpet for her. Her playing on a rich-toned Ruckers instrument is deeply impressive and rewarding, and a model of clarity. A disc very highly recommended on all counts." (Gramophone, April 1999) "A player of taste and superb technique" (Gramophone) |
Born in Sweden and of Sephardi-Turkish origins, Carole Cerasi is one of the foremost early keyboard players of her generation. She first became interest in the harpsichord at the age of eleven. Three years later Carole Cerasi was invited by the famous harpsichordist, organist and musicologist Kenneth Gilbert to be the youngest participant on his course at the Vleeshuis in Antwerp. Since that time one of her strongest musical influences has been Jill Severs.
Carole Cerasi is renowned for her expressive and virtuosic interpretations, fluidity of phrasing and refined touch. Her playing is not easily placed in one category: Carole Cerasi has a strong affinity with the French clavecinistes but her repertoire stretches from the English Virginalists through all the national styles to the early sonatas of Beethoven and Haydn, which she performs on fortepiano. She explores the classical fortepiano chamber repertoire with Ensemble Türk, a flexible group with the classical trio format (violin, viola and cello) at its core that she formed in 1999. They comprise some of England’s finest and most respected young musicians and play on original instruments. Based in London since 1982, Carole Cerasi has performed throughout Europe as well as in Japan, Sinagpore, Colombia, Canada and the USA. Her performances include acclaimed recitals at the Wigmore Hall, the Festival du Périgord, the Istanbul International Festival and the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm. Carole Cerasi has established herself at the front rank of performers and recording artists in her field; while her performances receive great critical acclaim, her recordings have garnered an impressive series of awards. Her first solo CD, the complete works of Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, recorded at Hatchlands Park, was unanimously praised by the press and won the Baroque Instrumental Gramophone Award. Other discs of sonatas by C.P.E. Bach and works by Thomas Tomkins were equally acclaimed, and Carole Cerasi received the Diapason d'Or de l'Année for both. Her next CD, J.S. Bach and the Möller Manuscript, released in 2002, won a further Diapason d’Or de l'Année and came second in the Gramophone Baroque Instrumental Awards. She is now Professor of Harpsichord at the Yehudi Menuhin School and of Fortepiano and Harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. |
Carole Cerasi's events and performances: