recordings in which the harp is heard

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Sam Milligan brought up a good point in another thread. He was disappointed with a recording in which he could barely hear the harp part in “Nutcracker”. How many of us have bought a recording in order to listen to the harp, and found it to be so buried that it was inaudible? Recommendations, anyone, for especially good recordings of this piece or any others, in which the sound engineer has made sure the harp part can be heard and still sounds good, not forced?

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

There is one with Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra featuring Lucile Lawrence in the Salzedo cadenza if you can find it. You can also listen to any of the Philadelphia Orchestra recordings. I haven’t made a point of collecting that piece. I also have a complete ballet recorded by Ansermet, and I think I could hear the harp. The first one I ever got was a seven-record set of ballets on London, with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestre under Cluytens, I think, with someone on a straight-sounding board harp.

[sherry-lenox]

I have a hobby of reading scores as I listen to orchestral (or other) music, and I have been quite surprised to learn that some composers wrote for harp- many parts appear in scores that I have never heard at all.

[David Ice]

Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony recordings are well engineered so that you can hear the harp.

[Anonymous]

The late Margaret Ross was one of the busiest commercial New York harpists in her day, very much in demand for any kind of recording going.

[unknown-user]

She sounds like my sort of gal!

[unknown-user]

One of the better recordings I heard back of myself for the Nutcracker was on a tiny stage, where I was backed in against the wall – and there was a lip jutting out at that point creating

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

You were lucky! Our orchestra once recorded a Christmas CD in which my Waltz of the Flowers cadenza sounded like I had stayed home and phoned it in, long distance. I have to crank up the volume to hear it. (We didn’t have our usual sound engineers for that one.) Most of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra recordings

[unknown-user]

Hmmmmm…maybe the producer wanted the mysterious and distant quality???? Maybe he’d been watching game shows where you phone a friend for advice???

Nice harp parts in all of those. I did the Korngold and the Walton not so long ago but it was not recorded. I may just get

[sherry-lenox]

Is there harp in each movement of the Barber? I didn’t know there was a harp part and I know practically every note by ear (not to play of course).

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Actually, there is no harp part at all in the Barber, but there are lovely harp parts in the Korngold and the Walton. The harp is particularly noticeable in the Korngold.

[unknown-user]

The Ancient Airs and Dances Suites by Respighi feature the harp quite nicely – especially 1 and 2…
My favorite recording is the LA Chamber Orchestra / Marriner.

Tom
Let your voice be heard!
http://GigSpeak.com

[unknown-user]

Just listened the a Cleveland Symphony recording of the Debussy Prelude in the Afternoon of a

[unknown-user]

Dear Elizabeth, I saw that you recorded the Francesca da Rimini harp part, and I’m going to rehersal this part next wednesday. I don’t know exactly if there are different parts of this piece, because I remember to have played already a part that had a Cadenza, more or less like the Flower Waltz, but now they gave me another part that has only some apreggios, very fast, but not like a Cadenza. I was wondering if this piece complete is much bigger, like an opera or similar, and we are going to do now, only a part of it or something like a suite of the whole piece? Anyway, if you know more than me at this moment, could you help me to understand this part? What fingering did you use for those arpeggios part, if you remember? I was looking better at them, and I thought it is

[vincent-pierce]

I have a recording of Petrouchka by London Symphony/Eugene Goossens in which the harp is very clear and audible. It’s a fantastic recording. Also, any of the US Air Force Band recordings that include harp are excellent. And just because it’s a ‘band’ doesn’t mean they don’t play good music and play it well. Their recording of the wind transcription of La Mer is one of the best recordings of that piece I have ever heard, and the harp cuts through amazingly. The harpist in that group is Eric Sabatino. And I do have a recording of Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra where the harp sounds like it’s in the bathroom playing the cadenza. It’s very nice, but I can only hear it with headphones on.

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