CD Pick of the Week “Harp Concertos” with Elizabeth Hainen
CD Pick of the Week “Harp Concertos” with Elizabeth Hainen
“Hainen’s latest recording, on the Avie label, features three works; probably the best-known of them is Saint-Saëns’ Concert Piece for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 154.”
—WETA Washington DC (Pick of the Week), July 4, 2011
Harp Concertos with Elizabeth Hainen
Elizabeth Hainen has been the principal harpist at the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1994, and is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute and at Temple University, both in Philadelphia. In 2004 she founded the Saratoga Harp Colony, where 20 harpists study intensively for three weeks each summer. And her nonprofit foundation The Lyra Society provides educational programs for schoolchildren in Philadelphia and beyond.
Hainen’s latest recording, on the Avie label, features three works; probably the best-known of them is Saint-Saëns Concert Piece for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 154. One of three such works that he wrote (the other two are for violin and horn, respectively), the harp concert piece dates from 1919.
Elias Parish Alvars, born Eli Parish on the south coast of Devon in 1808, was a dramatic figure who inspired Berlioz to this description: “The man is a magician. In his hands the harp becomes a siren, a lovely neck inclined and wild hair flowing, stirred by his passionate embrace to utter the music of another world.” Parish Alvars’ “Grand Concerto” for harp and orchestra in G minor is the opening work on this recording.
The Harp Concerto in C by Albrechtsberger was written more than 30 years before the invention of the double-action harp. He was best known as an organist and teacher; in fact, Mozart considered Albrechtsberger the finest organist of his day. A very young Ludwig van Beethoven was one of Albrechtsberger’s students. This work is his only surviving concerto for harp.
© 2011 WETA