Geoffrey Lancaster
Geoffrey Lancaster plays Mozart and Haydn on the fortepiano with fearless freedom: improvised preludes, lavish ornament, tempo that breathes and darts. The playing reclaims the music's wit, drama and conversational intimacy.
On period instruments he treats the score as a living script. Rubato opens the kernels of Haydn's compressed phrases into florid speech; Mozart sonatas arrive as outbursts, conversations and sweet nothings rather than four-square monuments. He has taken the complete Haydn keyboard sonatas into the studio, each work eased in by a brief improvised prelude in the old manner, and brought the same heat to Mozart sets including K. 330 to 332. With the Song Company he unleashed the scatological canons and songs; alone he finds passion and contemplation in Haydn's Seven Last Words. Paired with James Huntingford he turns to the dazzling two-fortepiano music of Müthel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Nothing half-hearted and nothing stuffy: the fortepiano answers with gusto.
Geoffrey Lancaster is featured on the following titles
W. F. Bach & J. G. Müthel: Complete Works for Two Fortepianos
Fortepianists Geoffrey Lancaster and James Huntingford join forces on a landmark Australian early-instrument recording: the complete works for two fortepianos by W. F. Bach and J. G. Müthel, played with rare virtuosity and stylistic insight.
Mozart: Sonatas K. 570, 282, 333
Geoffrey Lancaster returns with three Mozart keyboard sonatas on fortepiano. His earlier Tall Poppies set of the K. 330–332 group had already won strong critical notice.
Haydn: Seven Last Words of Christ
One of the most extraordinary of Haydn’s late works. Five versions exist, including the original orchestral score; this keyboard version was prepared by his publisher Artaria and thoroughly approved by the composer. Full of passion and contemplation, it receives a superlative performance.
Mozart: Keyboard Sonatas, K. 330-332
By 2017 Geoffrey Lancaster was deep into the fifth decade of his performing career. Tall Poppies first recorded him in Mozart in 1991, accompanying the Song Company on Mozart Unexpurgated. A quarter-century later he returns to the composer with three of the best-loved keyboard sonatas.
Joseph Haydn: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 4
Tall Poppies and fortepianist Geoffrey Lancaster continue their survey of Joseph Haydn’s complete keyboard sonatas. He gave the full cycle of 52 sonatas in concert in Melbourne, Perth and Canberra for the 2009 bicentenary, and records them on period instruments from Australian collections.
Credit: Liner Notes
Joseph Haydn: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 3
Tall Poppies and fortepianist Geoffrey Lancaster continue their survey of Joseph Haydn’s complete keyboard sonatas on period instruments.
Credit: Liner Notes
Joseph Haydn: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 2
2009 marked the bicentenary of Joseph Haydn’s death. To commemorate the anniversary, Tall Poppies and fortepianist Geoffrey Lancaster began recording Haydn’s complete keyboard sonatas on period instruments.
Composer
Credit: Liner Notes
Joseph Haydn: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 1
In the bicentenary year of Joseph Haydn’s death, Tall Poppies and Geoffrey Lancaster begin a complete survey of the keyboard sonatas, opening with three middle-period works on fortepiano.
Credit: liner notes
Mozart: Sonatas for Fortepiano
Three Mozart fortepiano sonatas from Geoffrey Lancaster, first-prize winner at Bruges and a forthright, well-researched voice who has long unsettled early-music orthodoxy in Australia.
Producer: Producer
Mozart Unexpurgated
The Song Company sings Mozart’s scatological canons and songs, with fortepianist Geoffrey Lancaster improvising the accompaniments and taking two irreverent solo turns.