Rummage amongst old piles of 78s and you’ll eventually
come across a famous coupling on a 10" Columbia sketchily titled
Prayer and the Angel’s Serenade and played by the French
harp virtuoso Carlos Salzedo. Like his Parisian born contemporary, the
six years younger Marcel Grandjany, Salzedo was to spend much of his
working life in America though Salzedo came to New York much earlier
than his illustrious counterpart. Grandjany was later to settle there
and taught at Juilliard from 1938-75 and Salzedo taught at Curtis from
its inception, the two men together instilling a strong and decisive
French tradition in American harp playing.
Compositionally Salzedo was a sophisticated and cosmopolitan
impressionist. Like Ravel he was born in the Basque region and absorbed
some of Ravel’s influence as well as managing to expand the harp’s potential
for colour and technique – and he wrote noted technical treatises in
which he promulgated his method. But there were other ways in which
a virtuoso harpist could make his mark and one of them was the Concert
Fantasy in which pot pourri could spice a recital either in concert
or on radio, where Salzedo was always exceptionally popular (there’s
a double CD available entitled Salzedo On Air which published
radio transcriptions from the 1930s and some of his other performances
are available on the Marquis label). In addition to the Fantasies, this
disc collects his arrangements – predominately Scottish and Irish ballads,
Americana, popular songs - and own compositions.
Alice Giles, the exceptionally nimble and glitteringly
convincing soloist, is no stranger to Salzedo as she has recorded his
Suite of Dances, amongst other things, on Koch Schwann 312232. Here
she brings all her agility to a recital of delightful breadth and charm.
The Jolly Piper is a delicious confection based on the Sailor’s
Hornpipe, full of witty accents and displacements, wandering into subversive
keys and wrapped up with decisive technical flourishes. The Londonderry
Air, rippling and affectionate, contrasts with Massenet’s Minuet
d’amour, full of romantic amplitude. Handel’s The Harmonious
Blacksmith, a Salzedo favourite, is full of elfin decoration, bringing
out the harmonic implications of the music – by discreet key changes
- with unforced delicacy. The evocative Americana of Traipsin’
thru Arkansaw is subjected to some wicked narrative dislocations;
Deep River bathed in dignity and the Turkey Strut glitters
but doesn’t preen. Salzedo’s own Song in the Night is a fabulous
mood-changing virtuosic slice of impressionism with some technical surprises
– wood knocking amongst them – and infectious dance rhythms. La Désirade
with its astonishing pedal slides begins rather gruffly, with saturnine
wood knocking, but grows in amplitude and feeling. The Agustin Lara
Granada Fantasy is full of high spirits and affectionate filigree and
both Salzedo and Alice Giles dig into Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody.
I’ve not heard of the Artworks label before but if
this nourishing and delightfully recorded and produced disc is anything
to go by it’s a winner, right down to the artwork, a luxurious and promisingly
decadent Gulnare of the Sea by Maxfield Parish.
Jonathan Woolf
AVAILABILITY
http://buywell.com
http://artworksmusic.com
Artworks Recorded Music
PO Box 115
Chester Hill
NSW 2162
Australia
phone: 61(02) 97438990
fax: 61(02) 96455552
Alice Giles, harp