Marcel Tournier 1879-1951
A distinguished composer and
harpist who won the coveted‘Prix de Rome’ (a
prize that eluded Maurice Ravel) and whose teaching
at the Paris Conservatoire inspired a whole generation
of harpists.
Etude de Concert -
Au Matin (In The Morning) is a concert
study, playful, sparkling and brilliant and performed
by all harp players.
L’Éternel
Rêveur (The Eternal Dreamer) The
cello-like melodic line of this Nocturne breathes
poetry into this sensitive and rather introverted
composition.
Vers la Source dans
le Bois (Toward the Waterfall in the
Forest) This is an outstanding example of the
one of enharmonics (two adjacent strings tuned
to the same note) in a composition which depicts
the cascading of water.
Lolita la Danseuse (Lolita,
the Dancer) seems to be the typical North African
dancer, subtle, sensual and exciting who perhaps,
in the end, throws off all her beads!
Sergei Prokofiev 1891-1953
Prokofiev’s astringent
and personal style is shown in these three pieces
which make an effective little suite’.
Pièce for Eleonora was
written for the harpist Eleonora Damskaya and found
in her music after her death. Both she and Prokofiev
were student friends. It is rather a sinister slow
march with a middle section of filagree arpeggios
in an obsessive and repetitive harmonic idea.
Pittoresco (Visions
Fugutives No.7) This piece was brought to my
attention by the conductor Jack Lanchbery when
I was playing at the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden. He orchestrated it for a ballet and suggested
that I should play it as a harp solo. Subsequently
I found that Marcel Grandjany performed it in
a concert at the Salle Erard, Paris in 1927.
The piece has a strange logic and is rather haunting.
The original for piano is subtitled ‘Arpa’.
Prelude in C (Opus
12 No.7) was written at the beginning of the 20th
century for piano or harp. Exquisite arpeggios
of breathtaking lightness and speed frame a middle
section of earthy bass notes under cut-glass stacatti.
The Dawn of Romanticism
Mikhail Glinka 1804-1857 Nocturne
Frederick Chopin 1810-1849
Nocturne
Franz Liszt 1811-1886 Nocturne,
(Consolations No.3)
Elias Parish Alvars 1808-1849
Four Romances M-W14, M-W18, M-W100, M-W81
Albert Zabel 1835-1910 Sad
Marguerite at the Spinning Wheel, The Fountain
John Field (1782-1837) was
the real founder of the Romantic Movement in music.
Irish pianist and composer, his one movement nocturnes
inspired the compositions of Glinka, Chopin. Liszt,
Parish Alvars and many others. He travelled to
St. Petersburg and became Glinka's teacher. The
beautiful Nocturne in E flat written by Glinka
especially for the harp in 1828, is very much in
Field’s mould.
Following this tradition.
Chopin wrote his fascinating Nocturne in C# minor
(played here in C minor) before he left Poland
He dedicated it to his elder sister Louise "for
practice before she starts playing my concerto.”
The Nocturne is filled with fragments from his
Concerto in F minor but moulded together in a cohesive
whole that gives this masterpiece a powerful emotional
impact
Franz Liszt was a great lover
of the harp and even encouraged harpists to play
transcriptions of his piano music in their concerts.
His Nocturne (Consolations No. 3) is still very
much in the tradition of Field and contains modulations
that must have been quite astonishing for musicians
at that time. Elias Parish Alvars, born in Teignmouth
in Devon, was the most famous harp virtuoso of
the first half of the nineteenth century. Berlioz
called him the“Liszt of the harp”.
Some of his Nocturnes (or
Romances as Parish Alvars called them) are still
in manuscript form in the famous Morley Harp Library
There are over one hundred of then and I have given
them Morley-Watkins numbers and published those
that I liked the best.
Albert Zabel was a German
harpist who went to St. Petersburg, becoming a
musician in the Imperial Ballet where his playing
inspired Tchaikovsky.
Many of his compositions were
dedicated to his titled students and Sad Marguerite
and The Fountain are characteristic of his late
romantic style.
William Mathias 1934-1992
William Mathias is the most
famous of Welsh composers with strong ties to his
Welsh roots. Bill and his lovely wife Yvonne, were
my closest friends when we were all students at
the Royal Academy of Music. The Improvisations
were written for me at this time. A doting Great
Aunt gave me £5 at my 21st birthday party
which I passed under the table to ‘pay’ for
this fine composition.
Since then, Bill wrote several
harp solos including a Concerto, but the Improvisations
remain my favourite work.
Three Improvisations.
The first movement is a ‘toccata’
- rather in the eighteenth century tradition, the
second a Nocturne, which is a subtle interplay
between the treble and the bass of the instrument.
The third is remarkable far the rhythmic vitality
that is created in a piece of such brevity.
Charles Debussy 1862-1918
La
Fille au Cheveux de Lin (The Girl
with the Flaxen Hair) is taken from his Piano
Préludes written in 1910. His impressionistic
approach a already very evident, with colour,
sonority and dynamic contrast suspended between
heaven and earth. Birds singing outside the
church during the recording enhance the feelings
of nature!
Première Arabesque (First
Arabesque) is a piano piece written in 1888. It
is a rather romantic piece, but with glimpses of
Debussy’s later style. However I have to
admit that it is one of those rare keyboard pieces
which sounds better on the harp!
Antonio Ruiz-Pipo 1934-1997
Cançion
y Danza. I have such a debt of gratitude
to Antonio whose musical influence I feel to
this day When I was studying in Paris, he introduced
me to so much Spanish music, both ancient and
modern. I shall never forget his playing of
early keyboard sonatas and I stole some of
them for the harp. The Cançion y Danza
was stolen from the guitar as I was completely
seduced by the music. So Antonio and I transcribed
it for the harp and I have been playing it
ever since. Both movements hark back to the
Renaissance - Cançion with a beautiful
long melodic line and Danza with hypnotic rhythms.
David Watkins
In Memoriam (Tsunami) The ‘In
Memoriam’ was written for the talented young
harpist Verity Thirkettle.
I was horrified when we went
to war in Iraq and wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury
and received a kind personal letter from him. Then
the Asian Tsunami happened and I wrote the ‘In
Memoriam’ remembering so much human suffering.
The Passacaglia is based on
the repetitive pattern of four bass notes - Eb,
Ab, Db, Bb and back to Eb. It is brutally broken
by a discordant E as the wave engulfs everything
in its path. Time goes on and peace and hope return.
Petite
Suite
(Prelude - Nocturne
- Fire Dance)
The 'Petite Suite’ was my first major composition
and was written out of the frustration of only
being allowed to play studies and exercises in
my first year of student life in Paris. Since then
I have been composing and arranging music continuously
including a Harp Concerto that I performed with
the London Philharmonic at the Royal Festival Hall
conducted by Walter Susskind, a Concerto for Two
Harps, chamber music and songs.
The first movement (Prelude)
is a sparkling barcarolle welcoming Spring. From
a boat one sees the swallows skimming over the
water with their joyful cries and there is a feeling
of happiness and regeneration.
The Nocturne is more somber.
A thunderstorm seems about to break, but instead,
the clouds open and a black velvety sky is hung
with stars.
The Fire Dance was inspired
by the music from Paraguay. Rhythmically compelling
it is a 'hot little number'!
David Watkins