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I got a new bench from Harp Connection that I am pretty happy with, and it was inexpensive. Esthetics are very important with the harp, and I don’t think chairs look good with it, or benches where you can’t see the legs, like the folding ones. I don’t see any need for special ergonomics. You need the right height, some padding, and posture should take care of the rest, it seems to me.
I don’t like using it on a laptop, even with a fairly large screen. The larger the screen, the better. With the extra elements that show, like the number pad, mixer, etc., in Sibelius, a laptop is not as compatible as a desktop monitor. To be really comfortable, I would have to add a large-screen monitor.
Thankfully, I know my standing ovations aren’t mandatory, because I didn’t get one last year, and I did this year, and which piece I play last makes the biggest difference. I think my record is 8 out of 10 performances with standing ovations. A lot of it has to do with the way I sequence pieces.
I’m pretty sure Frasier used an actual harpist who actually played, if it’s the scene in his apartment, with the harp by the grand piano.
Your post is unclear. Why can’t you perform what you know? It will fit with the orchestration in exactly the same way. The original score only gives the melody and bass, which is only the bare bones. One does not only play those lines, you are expected to complete the harmonies according to the figured bass, and add something to that as well in baroque practice. Only a competition could specify a particular edition, seems to me.
The Intermezzo may be for tone quality, expression in simple passages. The list is very similar to those used by the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera. As for preparing, not only must one know all of this thoroughly, you should be prepared to sight-read anything in the rest of those operas, and the entire opera literature as my teacher used to say. Opera is rather a specialty, as is ballet as well. At least they didn’t ask for Wozzeck.
The septet is hard to find, it may only be in the complete works of Glinka here, and hard to get that kind of ensemble together. Please designate more clearly which version one is discussing. The copy that I most recently found has the dates 1822-1827 on it.
The fingers should complete their movement independently of what the hand is doing. Perhaps you mean that the hand moves away after you finish playing? If you are pulling your hand instead of your fingers, you will end up having to correct that habit someday, I would think.
I related this before, but Zabaleta was doing a recital in Carnegie Hall, and he stopped after the first piece and said something inaudible. He stopped midway through the second piece, got up from the harp, went to the front of the stage, and started yelling at someone to get out. It turns out an older man had fallen asleep and was snoring. He wouldn’t leave, but he managed to stay awake, apparently. Unfortunately, as we couldn’t hear the problem, it made Zabaleta look temperamental.
My Minnesota experience was that it is the veneer that will crack along the center strip the first time you take it out in below-zero weather. Back then, in the 1970s, my teacher said it was okay, unavoidable, and it would actually loosen up the wood so the sound would start to develop sooner.
The simple answer would seem to be to reproduce Wurlitzer harps, as they are as near to the best as you can get.
