Monday 16 July 2012

What's on the iPod- L'arome de L'est


In preparation for the upcoming Marie Antoinette concert (read more about that here) I had recently downloaded L'arome de l'est by Masumi Nagasawa, a fantastic Japanese harpist based in Maastricht. She specialises in music for the single action harp and has SO many CDs. I've already mentally spent an enormous sum of money just reading about them. You can check out her website here.

I'd ended up buying this CD because it was readily available on iTunes and I confess I needed it in a hurry. Things in the post can sometimes take a very long time to find their way to Australia. It was the only solo harp CD that came up when I was searching for music by Krumpholz. Lots of recordings of concertos, works with flute etc but not so many solo pieces. It's a great collection all round:

"L'arome de L'est"
Harp Music from Eastern Europe and beyond
Performed on the
Erard Single-action pedal harp (around 1820)
Etcetera KTC1362

Jean Baptist Krumpholtz (1747-1790)
Sonate en scene de stile pathétique op. 16 bis
dedicated to Madame la Comtesse de Rzewuska
Etude du Renforcement (Adagio from the Sonata op. 14)

Jean Baptist Cardon (1760-1803)
Sonata in F moll
Variations on the theme of “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman”

Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812)
3 sonatinas
from the six Sonatinas dedicated to Madame Krumpholtz

Andrei Sikhra (1766-1851)
Variations on the Russian theme “Au milieu des collines

John Field (1782-1837)
Nocturne Es dur
arranged by Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849)

Louis Spohr (1784-1859)
Variations on the theme of “Je suis encore dans mon printemps”
from the Opera by Etienne-Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817) Op.36

Alexandre Varlamov (1801-1848)
Melodie

Michail Iwanowitsch Glinka (1804-1857)
Nocturne Es dur
Nocturne “Solitude/ Razluka” F moll




I fell in love with Krumpholz's Etude de renforcement and was able to find the original score through IMSLP. It's looks beautiful, and is readable for today's harpist, but contains a LOT of markings, some of which are unfamiliar for a modern player. I think they relate to the use of the swell doors that open and close at the back of single action pedal harps. There's a picture on Masumi's website.

I just wish iTunes includes the CD booklet notes so I could read all about it. Or does it, and I'm so technologically challenged I don't know it?


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