Harp Concertos
Rec. 1976-2006
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 96102 [5 CDs: 325:39]
This enjoyable collection follows on from earlier compilations from Brilliant Classics, such as Oboe Concertos (Cat. No. 95410), Horn Concertos (95412), Trumpet Concertos (95608) and Clarinet Concertos (95787). This collection is relatively modest in size, compared to those sets. Here we have 5 CDs worth of works for harp and orchestra (not all of them being actual concertos), whereas Clarinet Concertos consists of 14 CDs, Oboe Concertos of 12, with Horn Concertos and Trumpet Concertos each being made up of 10 CDs. But, as the saying has it, “size isn’t everything”. Actually, the Brilliant Catalogue contains another compilation which is even more pertinent to the set under review. Romantic Harp Concertos (Cat. No. 95167) contains two CDs – CDs which are identical to CDs 1 and 2 in this new collection. Potential purchasers will surely want to bear this in mind.
The range of Harp Concertos here is undeniably considerable. The works included vary in date from 1736 to 1980; from composers as familiar as Handel, Mozart and Saint-Saëns to lesser-known figures such as Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz, Georg Christoph Wagenseil and José Manuel Joly Braga Santos. There are concertos for solo harp and for the harp in partnership with the flute (Mozart), the violin (Spohr), the oboe (Alwyn and Lutosławski). Those with a long-standing love of the harp will doubtless already be in possession of recordings of a number of these concertos, but for others this set of 5 discs will be an invitation to add, for relatively little money (the set is available from UK dealers online for prices such as £14.36 and £14.75) a number of interesting and probably unfamiliar works to their collection. While in some cases superior recordings certainly exist, none of the recordings brought together here seem to me to be inadequate or inacceptable.
Leaving aside Handel and Mozart, I found particular pleasure in Wagenseil’s Concerto, full of galant charm. Works such as this and the best of his 77 symphonies make it easy to see why Wagenseil was well respected in his native Vienna. A minor figure he may be, but he is a composer of considerable skill and elegance. Elsewhere – and very different – Ginastera’s splendidly colourful Harp Concerto is a joy. Infused with Latin (or, more specifically, Argentinian) rhythms, most notably that of the malambo, a contest dance between gauchos, in which the feet beat the floor in a kind of fierce tap dancing – which can be heard especially in the finale, but also in some passages of the first movement. In between those two movements, the second (marked molto moderato) has the air of an Argentinian remaking of Bartokian night music, being tender yet never without a sense of danger. No harp concerto before this had made such extensive (and loud) use of percussion – apart from the ordinary percussion resources of the symphony orchestra, Ginastera’s score calls for, inter alia, bongos, claves, tamtam, tambourine and a whip. The work has passages of fierce energy, which alternate with phases of calmer, at times almost rhapsodic, music. The soloist is called on to use extended techniques such as pedal slides, the playing of glissandos with the nails, sliding the palm upwards over the strings and percussive strokes on the frame and soundboard. At times Ginastera’s harp sounds almost like the guitar used so frequently in the Argentinian folk music Ginastera so often drew on. This concerto is consistently inventive and exhilarating. Harpist Jutta Zoff and the Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Siegfried Kurz provide an accomplished reading of Ginastera’s music. There are, admittedly, even finer recordings to be found, such as that of 1989 by Nancy Allen, with the Filarmónica de la Ciudad de Mexico, conducted by Enrique Batiz (ASV CDDCA654) and my own favourite, the recording by Sidsel Walstad with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya (LAWO LWC1182), released in 2019. But, in the nature of compilations such as this, one expects – and is entitled to – not the very best ever recording but a good performance which doesn’t misrepresent the work concerned. The version reissued here certainly meets that criterion. One friend I encouraged to listen to it (while maintaining all required social distancing) enjoyed it enough to begin ordering other works by Ginastera.
It is another virtue of a compilation such as this that one finds oneself listening again to music heard in the past, but largely forgotten since. One experience of that kind which I had here was with Boieldieu’s Harp Concerto in C. I have only vague memories of hearing this work on record (and I do mean ‘record’ rather than CD) quite a few years ago. Although it has, I know, been recorded several times, I have, somehow, not heard it again until now. It is a somewhat asymmetrical work, with its first movement being almost as long as the other two combined. Here, it is played (this is something I didn’t notice until typing this review) by the very same soloist, orchestra and conductor as the Concerto by Ginastera discussed above. That they give good accounts of both works says a lot for their versatility and range of musical sympathies. Boieldieu’s Concerto entertains, without provoking much in the way of emotional involvement, unless that be in the opening of the second movement. The music is everywhere fluent and competent. Best, I think, is the third movement, a Rondo marked ‘Allegro Agitato’, in which one hears Boieldieu the prolific composer of successful comic operas and which evokes Parisian high society. I was reminded of Berlioz’s observation that
Boieldieu’s music had a “pleasing and tasteful Parisian elegance”.
There are many other opportunities and rewards to be found on these 5 discs.
The chance, for example, to get to know Lutosławski’s initially daunting
Double Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra, a work which certainly
doesn’t reveal itself fully on a single hearing but, just as certainly,
rewards attentive listening. The composer wrote of the work, “The music is multi-faceted and just when it seems to be saying one thing, it is saying something else at the same time – sometimes in contradiction. The titles of the movements – Rapsodico, Dolente, Marchiale e grotesco are only to be taken figuratively.” This recording, licensed from Naxos, is fine, though perhaps marginally inferior to that by oboist Nicholas Daniel and harpist Lucy Wakeford, with the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra (ACCORD ACD 166-2). I am also grateful to have the recordings of Spohr’s Concertante for Violin and Harp, Reinecke’s Harp Concerto in E minor, the Variaçōes concertantes by Joly Braga Santos and Dussek’s Harp Concerto in E flat – all of them interesting works that one doesn’t very often get the chance to hear. These 5 CDs, in short, demonstrate a good deal about how rich and various the repertoire for harp and orchestra is and the useful booklet notes by Philip Borg-Wheeler will be of real value to those exploring this repertoire for the first time.
Glyn Pursglove
Contents
CD1
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
1-3. Harp Concerto in B flat, HWV294 (1736) [12:20]
Charlotte Balzareit (harp), Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra/ Nicol Matt. Rec. Stuttgart, 2004.
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
4-6. Flute and Harp Concerto in C, K299 (1778) [27:15]
Marc Grauwels (flute), Giselle Herbert (harp), Les Violins du Roy/Bernard Labadie. Rec.
Eindhoven, 1994.
François-Adrien BOIELDIEU (1755-1834)
7-9. Harp Concerto in C (1801) [22:07]
Jutta Zoff (harp), Staatskapelle Dresden/Siegfried Kurz. Rec. Dresden, 1981.
CD2
Carl Ditters Von DITTERSDORF (1739-1799)
1-3. Harp Concerto in A [19:10]
Johann Georg ALBRECHTSBERGER (1736-1809)
4-6. Harp Concerto in C [19:28]
7-10. Partita in F [17:39]
Georg Christoph WAGENSEIL (1715-1777)
11-13. Harp Concerto in G [13:38]
Jana Boušiková (harp), Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim/Vladislav Czarnecki.
Rec. 1998.
CD3
Jean Baptiste KRUMPHOLZ (1742-1790)
1-3. Harp Concerto, No.6, Op.9 [23:53]
Jan Ladislav DUSSEK (1760-1812]
4-6. Harp Concerto in E flat, Op.15 (1789) [24:54]
Roberta Alessandrini (harp), Orchestra di Mamtova/Vittorio Parisi. Rec. Sermide, Italy, 1995.
Louis SPOHR (1784-1859)
Concertante for violin and harp in G, WoO13 [21:44]
Ruggiero Ricci (violin), Susanna Mildonian (harp), Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg/Louis De Froment. Rec, Stuttgart, 1977.
CD4
Carl REINECKE (1824-1910)
1-3. Harp Concerto in E minor, Op.182 [24:00]
Fabrice Pierre (harp), Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Patrick Gallois. Rec. Örebro, Sweden, 2004.
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
4. Morceaux de Concert in G, Op.154 [13:14]
Gabriel PIERNÉ (1863-1937)
5. Concertstück, Op.39 [13:26]
Catherine Michel (harp), Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg/Louis De Froment. Rec. Stuttgart 1976.
José Manuel Joly Braga SANTOS (1924-1988)
6. Variaçōes concertantes, Op.40 [11:09]
Sue Blair (harp), Northern Sinfonia/Álvaro Cassuto. Tec. Gosforth, England 2001.
CD5
Alberto GINESTERA (1916-1983)
1-3. Harp Concerto, Op. 25 (1956-1965) [22:51]
Jutta Zoff (harp), Staatskapelle Dresden/Siegfried Kurz. Rec. Dresden, 1981.
William ALWYN (1905-1985)
4-5. Concerto for oboe, harp and strings (1945) [18:47]
Jonathan Small (oboe), Eleanor Hudson (harp), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/David Lloyd-Jones.
Rec. Liverpool, 2006.
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI (1913-1994)
6-8. Double Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra (1980) [18:20]
Arkadiusz Krupa (oboe), Nicholas Tulliez (harp), Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra/Antoni Wit. Rec. Krákow, 2001.
