John- I’m not sure what you mean by a landmark recording. There are certain recordings that I consider the definitive recordings of specific pieces. There are certain players that I feel are the best at a certain type of repertoire. But all of that of course is subjective, and someone else might take strong issue with my choices.

At the top of my list would be Lily Laskine playing the Pierne Concertstuck. Zabaleta playing the two Divertissements of Caplet. Suzanne McDonald playing the big Renie pieces as well as the Liszt/Renie Nightingale. Naoko Yoshino playing the Debussy first and second Arabesques as well as Salzedo’s Variations in the Old Style. I don’t pretend to know every recording out there, but these are just a few that come immediately to mind.

What fun. Okay, here are five classical pedal harp CDs, four lever harp
CDs, and one pedal harp/lever harp CD, covering a whole bunch of
genres (Note: the classical albums have a good mix of harp history —
Grandjany, Salzedo, Renie, Tournier, etc.). If someone wanted a good
starting background in the harp here is what I would give them:

1. Jana Bouskova “Virtuoso Encores” (classical – pedal) Highlight:
Chopin “Fantasie-Impromptu, Op. 66”
(Posse), Parish-Alvars “La Mandoline.” My jaw literally drops every time I hear this album. Is what she does humanly possible?

2. Judy Loman “Harp Showpieces” (classical – pedal) Highlight: best
Hasselmans’ “La
Source” of the 27 recordings I’ve listened to. See my chart:
La Source Chart

3. Elizabeth Hainen “Music for Solo Harp”
(classical – pedal)
Highlight: Chopin “Aeolian Harp
Etude, Op. 25, No. 1″ (Posse), Liszt “Un Sospiro” (Renie). I bought a
letter written by Franz Liszt to Wilhelm Posse from a European
manuscript dealer after listening to this album. I now have both their
molecules on my harpstand. They intermingle with my harpstrings.
Someday I will learn these pieces. Thank you, Ms. Hainen for changing
the course of my life.

4. Susann McDonald “Caprice” (classical – pedal) Highlight: Godefroid “Romance
without Words/Bois
Solitaire” Nobody does agogic accents like Ms. McDonald. I
ache.

5. Alan Stivell “Renaissance de la Harp Celtique” (wire – the album
that
started the renaissance of the lever harp, wire and otherwise as we
know them today) Out of print for many years, get it while you can.
I took 13 lessons on a small harp 30 years ago because of this album. A
quote from
the Sylvia Woods Harp Center website:

I so totally agree with your choices. It is so hard to narrow the list
to ten with so many genres and recordings out there (a good thing for
us).

I had a hard time leaving Dorothy Ashby off my list, as her recording
is probably more ‘landmark’ than the one jazz recording I listed, which
I went with because it showcases jazz on both pedal and lever.

Zabaleta definitely needs to be on the list. The classical albums I
list do duplicate each other some, so Zabaleta could take the place of
any one of them (it would be hard for me to decide which one though).

I thought about ‘landmark’ versus ‘historical’ with regard to Salzedo
and Grandjany, etc., then opted for the other albums since their music
is on them, plus more. What we need is a landmark list for each genre,
or a separate ‘historical’ list.