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sounds amazing! I shall definitely be buying your new edition at the AHS conference. Are you going to be there? I’d love to meet you! Do you know yet how many dollars it will be? Many thanks, in eager anticipation of the edits to the 2nd and 3rd movements (especially as my next performance of the Debussy trio will be on Friday 27th June at St. John’s Smith Square in London…JUST after I get back from the conference…and i really want to somehow include the edits! Thank you!
I would like to join the army of thrilled harpists to say a huge thank you, Carl. The flurry of excitement on reading the article is still going strong and i am still putting the changes into my part. I cannot WAIT to purchase the new edition. Also, I really cannot wait for the rest of the article – sorry to sound rude, but playing the Sonate a lot, I am actually now near DESPERATE for the rest of the changes. Is there any way I can purchase the rest of the article from you in advance of publication? Or do ANYTHING to earn a copy! My trio and I are absolutely chomping at the bit for the next section. Anyway, thank you so much for the clear, faultless presentation. Watch out – you’re giving harpists a good name! (I have also subsequently found your article on playing the first page of the Debussy Danses- again, illuminating and wonderful).
hi there,
I doubt you’re still looking for this but I recently recorded Sweet Blues professionally and the CD will be out soon, along with other tracks as diverse as The Crown of Ariadne by Schafer, an Israeli piece by Yinam Leef, Tratti by Ig Henneman and Rokudan by Toshiro Mayuzumi. Let me know if you’d like to know when it’s available! If for any reason you’re still wanting to hear it soon I can share it with you on dropbox but I know this enquiry was years ago!
Best wishes,
Eleanor Turner
I play from the Pasveer edition and highly recommend it. Her fingerings are also a brilliant basis. I agree with Elizabeth Volpe Bligh that this is the edition to have – if you have no other, get this, as you get the original urtext plus (on a seperate stave) helpful suggestions for ornamentations, which you can use or not! Or use your own – it’s lovely having them on a seperate stave as then they don’t interfere with the original. I really love her second movement suggestions too, and do most of them. Having tried the piece on the welsh triple harp (for which it was written) it’s nice to be able to get closest to the same sound, without the confusion of the 3 rows of strings! Definitely recommend Pasveer. However, I’m glad I learnt the Grandjany whilst in my teens as it was so lush!
Wow!!! A reply from Elizabeth AND Judy herself! I am totally honoured!. Thank you so much. Yes, I have been doing it like that…hitting the string with the key at the point that makes it 1/4 tone lower, but it is actually 7 and 3/4 tones higher than the written B, because it’s a little like making a harmonic, just a slightly flat one… It only occured to me after I wrote the post about it, that I should just listen to Judy’s recording and copy it, which I did, and now it sounds the same as hers – it’s still almost an octave higher rather than just a quarter tone lower, but this is obviously what the composer meant so I am now content. Thank you so much for clearing that up for me!
EllieHi Saul,
I was just playing some beautiful Ginastera song accompaniments on the harp (although written for piano) and remembered reading your post the other day, i know this is from years ago but I thought I’d add my tuppence worth incase anyone else stumbled across it researching the Ginastera concerto – the guitar motif (you probably know this anyway!) is one of Ginastera’s little stamps. (I’ve just this moment played it several times) So, rather than saying anything about the harp, the guitar or even the piece, when he opens the 2nd movement with those 6 guitar string notes, he may have just been stamping his own favourite motif on the music – like Shostakovich’s initials all over his music, or an artist’s trademark brushstroke or emblem. I like it! 🙂 Apologies if since writing this you’ve played other pieces by him and noticed the same!Ellie Turner
I have studied many methods – Renie, Salzedo and personal methods by teachers all around the world. There are SO MANY WAYS of reaching the most wonderful musical conclusions and they do not depend on a hand or finger shape – they depend on a musical ear and a musical soul, and a REALLY great teacher to nurture that player’s musical expression through their large/small/flexible/unflexible joints. If the joints are not very flexible, more ‘souplesse’ can be put in the wrist. If the fingers cannot be trained to all pull in the same direction, the teacher must help the student find the best way for that individual to train their hands to get to the same musical conclusion despite the difficulties. Nothing should be seen as a problem.
As Salzedo said, there is nothing difficult, only that which is new. Harpists come in hundreds of different shapes and sizes, just like athletes do – teacher and student work together to find the individual method for each student. Try to be open minded and the rewards for YOU, as the teacher, will be immense!Hi All, It’s Eleanor Turner here – I am the one responsible for the 4 Harp version….I have just spent all day arranging it for solo harp, as it’s obviously popular! I have been loving playing it myself today and am going to include it at no extra cost in with my mailing to Helen, and as I didn’t have it done in time to mail it to Dawn or Louisa, I’m going to email it to you guys just as a jpg file or something 🙂 Enjoy! oh….I should warn you, it’s quite hard….lots of pedals….and doesn’t quite live up to the 4 harp version, but really fun to play!Ellie x
Hi all,
I am so glad that someone else went to the concert – so did I!! One of my colleagues drew my attention to this blog and the negative comments, so I had to read them as I was actually there, and like the harpist who wrote comment number 66, I really enjoyed it.
The playing was impeccable – a beautiful tone and strong but never forced sound, wonderfully composed and extremely moving. The title of the piece, and its description in the programme, indicated what it was likely to be like, so I (rightfully) went in to this concert without my young son! There was a lot of bad language, of course, and the text was broken up into fragments/motifs which certainly had an agressive effect – this was completely in context with the piece and really worked well. Lavinia is a true artist and could execute anything with great beauty, including this piece. The way she was duetting with the recording was astonishing – many of the motifs of thee voice were in unison with the same rhythms on the harp, and the harp copied the intonation of the voice- I’ve never heard such a clever use of the harp with a recording and was absolutely inspired to try this effect myself, as a composer as well as being a harpist.Lavinia’s voice did indeed join with the recorded woman’s voice at some points, which was very effective and so startling – it was a powerful performance to say the least, and I agree entirely with post 66, there were many goosebumps and I was almost crying at the end. The harshness of the voice in the first movement gave way, in movements 2 and 3, to some gut-wrenching moments – it was really affecting and upsetting knowing you were listening to real humans going through this. The harp playing was angelic, I agree, and the harmonies were never atonal – dissonant in many places, but never ugly. The subject matter was only as offensive on stage, and on the harp, as it is in real life. You could see the intensity and the integrity of Lavinia’s own feelings on trying to use music to break this constant cycle of drug abuse. I thought that it was the right choice to use the New York as the setting of this, as the projects and the ghettos are the most famous example of this cycle of abuse. It was heart-rending and made me so much more sympathetic to the people who’ve got trapped inside this cycle. Of course, it could be anywhere in the World. I think that the message did come across without targetting American culture or anything like that – that didn’t even occur to me (I’m a half-Scottish, half-English girl and know many places in both countries where there are exactly the same cycles going on)
Anyway, I’m going on a bit….it really was fantastic though. Not everyone’s taste, of course, and very gritty stuff indeed. But above all – the playing – Lavinia is a huge talent with such passion and focus. Gwyneth Wentick is also astounding – and I too thoroughly enjoyed her Ginastera concerto! – but Lavinia was the highlight of my week in Amsterdam, and this particular piece was the most inspiring new music I heard.
(Incidentally, she also played a wonderful piece with a string quartet that she’d had to arrange at the last moment as the arranged quartet pulled out – it
