The Handel Harp concerto for lever harp – which edition?

[cc-chiu]

Hi everyone,

There are at least three editions of this concerto for the lever harp
(O. Le Dentu, A. van Campen & A. Griffiths) – which one is the
closest to the original version?

My teacher apparently wasn’t aware of the fact that there are lever harp versions for it, so that’s why I ask. I only know that there are a few different versions, not whether they’re anything like the original.

Yours,

CC

[barbara-brundage]

Well, you’d really need to define “original” because all the published editions are somewhat realized and edited.

The Le Dentu is entirely in only two voices, which I myself find rather thin sounding. I would say the van Campen is closer to most of the usual pedal harp editions than the Le Dentu. Of the published pedal harp versions, I would say that the van Campen is most like the edition by Lucile Lawrence. It does have some clunky spots where I think the lever changes could have been handled better.

Both include all of all the movements, as far as I can remember off the top of my head, so you could play either with orchestra, but neither has much in the way of a cadenza. (Sorry, I don’t use either of these when I play it so haven’t looked at them very recently.)

I don’t know the Griffiths, so can’t comment on that.

[cc-chiu]

Thanks for your reply! I’m indeed looking for a version that resembles the pedal harp version as close as possible.

Apparently, there’s also an edition by Michele Beaumont-Cholet – perhaps there’s someone who knows about that one?

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