When Kit Armstrong was only 14, he overcame his mentor Alfred Brendel’s reluctance to take on pupils. Said Brendel: “He played so beautifully that I thought to myself, ‘I have to make time for him.’ It was a performance that really led you from the first to the last note.” Soon Armstrong was winning international prizes both as pianist and as composer and was appearing as soloist at some of the world’s foremost venues. At the Concertgebouw, Armstrong mesmerized his audience with Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations – preceded by earlier polyphonic variation masterpieces by William Byrd, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and John Bull. “Enlightening and exhilarating.” (Revierpassagen). “Armstrong’s phenomenal recital was so exceptional that every attempt to describe it falls short.” (NRC)
Zuzana Ruzickova: English Harpsichord Music
In this recording, the virtuoso harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova plays a selection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music, including works by William Byrd, John Bull, William Croft, Richard Farnaby, Thomas Morley and John Mundy.
Kit Armstrong – Bach’s Goldberg Variations and its predecessors
“Armstrong’s phenomenal recital was so exceptional that every attempt to describe it falls short” (NRC). When Kit Armstrong performed at Amsterdam’s hallowed Concertgebouw for the first time, he mesmerized his audience with Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. By combining them with earlier polyphonic variation masterpieces by William Byrd, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and John Bull, in the present program he is shedding a new light on Bach’s masterpiece. When Kit Armstrong was only 14, the Los Angeles-born musical prodigy overcame his mentor Alfred Brendel’s reluctance to take on pupils. Brendel said: “He played so beautifully that I thought to myself, ‘I have to make time for him.’” Soon Armstrong was winning international prizes both as pianist and as composer and was appearing at some of the world’s foremost venues.