Release Date: 05 January 2004
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313579129
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Music for Solo Harp
Description
Music for Solo HarpThe gradual development of the harp, one of the most ancient musical instruments, brought the increased possibility of chromatic notes and changes of key. The double-strung harps of the later sixteenth century led to the introduction of the triple harp, but an important change came with the eighteenth-century single-action pedal harp, which, nevertheless, still restricted the choice of keys in which the instrument could be played. The early years of the nineteenth century saw the introduction of the double-action harp by Erard, with its seven pedals allowing each string to be sharpened from the flats in which it was tuned, to the natural and sharp of each letter-name note. The present release contains works conceived originally for the single-action harp and others written for the double-action pedal harp, of which the English-born harpist Parish Alvars was an important pioneer.Franz Liszt’s three Liebesträume (Dreams of Love) were originally songs, written about 1845 and later transcribed for the piano. The third of the group is a setting of a poem by the poet and for a period of his life political exile, Ferdinand Freiligrath: O lieb’, o lieb’ so lang du lieben kannst (O love, O love, as long as you can) on the transitory nature of love. The transcription for harp is by the French harpist Henriette Renié, who was awarded Premier Prix at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve and went on to a distinguished career, the inspiration of a number of important French composers, who later wrote for the instrument.Lucia di Lammermoor is Donizetti’s operatic version of Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor, in which the heroine is tricked by her family into marriage with a man she does not love and whom she murders in madness on her wedding night. In the first act of the opera Lucia, with her attendant Alisa, comes out of Lammermoor Castle and stands, in agitation, by the haunted fountain in the park, where she plans to meet her true returning lover, Edgardo. The harp solo is elaborated by the great German-born harpist Albert Heinrich Zabel, who made his career primarily in St Petersburg as solo harpist with the Imperial Ballet and professor at the Conservatory there.Born at Novospasskoye, near Smolensk, in 1804, Glinka was to establish himself as a pioneer of Russian musical nationalism. In common with some of his successors, he had no systematic musical training and lacked the professionalism that the Rubinstein brothers later provided for Russian musicians. By 1828, when he wrote his harp Nocturne in E flat major, he was starting to turn his attention to opera, which came to fruition some eight years later, after study in Germany, in A Life for the Tsar. The Nocturne is a characteristic and charming example of salon music of the period.The Austrian composer Hugo Reinhold was born in 1854 in Vienna, where he served as a chorister in the court chapel, before studying at the Conserv
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Rico Gulda
Rhenish Po
Muller:Rhenish Po
