Robert Woolley was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Music, where he is now Adviser for Early Music and Professor of harpsichord, fortepiano and clavichord.
He is well known as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player; his solo recordings include harpsichord, organ and fortepiano music by Tallis, Gibbons, Byrd, Frescobaldi, Purcell, Weckmann, Bohm, Handel and Bach, Scarlatti and Seixas for EMI, Hyperion, Saga, Amon Ra and Chandos, His disc of the J.S.Bach Partitas for Chandos was released earlier this year.
Robert has given concerts and masterclasses in the UK, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Czechoslovakia, the USA and for EPTA, and was artist-in-residence at Washington University, St.Louis. He has played in all the major UK festivals, including Bath, King's Lynn and York, and regularly broadcasts for the BBC: programmes have included a number of recordings on historic organs, harpsichords and fortepianos.
Robert Woolley co-founded the Purcell Quartet in 1984, with which he has made many recordings for Chandos, including the complete concertos for 1,2,3 and 4 harpsichords by J.S.Bach, the complete chamber music of Purcell and Corelli, together with freshly re-discovered repertoire by Weckmann and Reinken. The Quartet regularly tours Europe, the USA, South America and Japan and has played at most of the major UK and European Festivals. Their production of Monterverdi's Incoronazione di Poppae was performed in Tokyo and recorded for Japanese television last autumn.
Byrd: Pavan and Galliard, Variations, Fantasia
Frescobaldi: Toccata, Partite
Rossi: Toccata
Aston: Hornpipe
Purcell: Pieces from Musick's Handmaid
L.Couperin: Suite in C
D.Scarlatti: Sonatas
F.Couperin: Pieces de Clavecin
Handel: Oratorio overtures arranged for keyboard by Handel
Rameau: Pieces de Clavecin
Royer: Le Vertige, Marche des Scythes
Forqueray: Suites
J.S.Bach Italian Concerto
C.P.E.Bach 12 Variations on the Folies d'Espagne
Soler: Fandango
Templeton: Bach Goes to Town
Ligeti: Hungarian Rock, Hungarian Passacaglia
Takemitsu: Rain Dreaming
J.S.BACH:
Sonata in E for violin and harpsichord
Sequence from the Goldberg Variations
Sonata in C minor for violin and harpsichord
Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier
Sonata in E major for violin and harpsichord
Concert Royal (F.Couperin)
Pieces for harpsichord (Rameau)
Sonata for violin and Continuo (Corelli)
Passacaglia for unaccompanied violin (Biber)
Sonatas for harpsichord (Scarlatti)
Sonata for violin and harpsichord (Leclair)
Richard Boothby (viola da gamba) Robert Woolley (harpsichord)
J.S.BACH
Sonata in G for viola da gamba and harpsichord
Toccata in G for harpsichord
Sonata in D for viola da gamba and harpsichord
Partita in Bb for harpsichord
Sonata in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsichord
Suite for viola da gamba and harpsichord (Marin Marais)
Pieces for harpsichord (Louis Couperin)
Suite for viola da gamba and harpsichord (F.Couperin)
Pieces for harpsichord (Balbastre)
Suite for viola da gamba and harpsichord (Forqueray)
Stephen Preston (flute) Robert Woolley (harpsichord)
J.S.BACH
Sonata in E minor for flute and harpsichord
French Suite in G for harpsichord
Sonata in E major for flute and harpsichord (CPE Bach)
Cappriccio on the Departure of his Beloved Brother for harpsichord
Sonata in B minor for flute and harpsichord
Suite in D for flute and harpsichord (Hotteterre)
Harpsichord Pieces (Louis Couperin)
Sonata in e minor (Blavet)
Concert Royal (F.Couperin)
Wurttemburg Sonata in A minor (CPE Bach)
Sonata in G major (Handel)
Catherine Bott (Soprano) / Dominique Visse (counter tenor) Robert Woolley (harpsichord)
ITALIAN AND ENGLISH SONGS AND KEYBOARD MUSIC
Songs by Frescobaldi, Monteverdi, Caccini, Cesti, Scarlatti
Keyboard music by Frescobaldi, Rossi, Scarlatti
Songs by Purcell, Eccles, Arne, Hook, Linley
Keyboard music by Purcell, R.Jones, Arne
- "It is tempting to say that it has been a privilege to experience Bach performances of such fastidiously fine quality, enshrined in a recording that is an object lessons in how the job should be done. But that would be tantamount to offering no more than a nod to the work of Robert Woolley. His profound musical understanding has for yrears been behind some of the most plausibly artistic solutions to the problems surrounding music of the Baroque.
He has a virtuoso technique too, which is certainly needed here. Bach may have courted popularity with graphic titles and a mixture of French and Italian styles (as Forkel said, the works "made a great noise in the musical world") but he made no concessions to those of limited technical ability. Woolley gets his fingers round the notes without any difficulty whatsoever but there is a lot more to his playing than mere executive ease. Unlike many other harpsichordists, he combines athletic buoyancy with graceful nuances (the judicious embellishments don't stand out like sore thumbs either) and a sensuous warmth that transcends criticism. Try the Sarabande of No. 6, a large-scale piece played imposingly but not ponderously. Take in the Overture of No. 4, its introduction double-dotted and grandly spacious, the ensuing fugue rhythmically resilient; and then experience the depth of feeling Woolley extracts from the following Allemande.
This is Bach with an illuminatingly sensitive human face. Chandos's sound, wisely distanced, without cramped harmonics and ear lacerating transients, captures its expressivity to perfection.
Nalen Anthoni
- Poised, ideally engaging performances.
- Classic CD CHOICE