SOSPIRI NEL TARDO ROMANTICISMO - Burani, Orchestra da Camera di Ravenna; Manetti; Noferini

SOSPIRI NEL TARDO ROMANTICISMO ( CVLD239 )

Author : AAVV
Performer : Davide Burani: Harp; Ravenna Chamber Orchestra; Paolo Manetti: Conductor; Roberto Noferini: Violin

Notes

Harp and strings together in romanticism
Iole Di Gregorio

Romantic sensibility led to the conception of the melodic idea as inextricably linked to the specific voice of an instrument, which determines the way it vibrates and reverberates in the soul. Although timbre is the primordial, alogical and instinctive element of music, until the eighteenth century the authors had given priority to other elements of the composition. The new attention to the "sound in itself" fueled the transformation of the performance techniques of the strings and the search for original timbral blends in the orchestra, the improvement of traditional and newly invented instruments, the valorization of ancient instruments as full of memories, such as the harp. Behind the modern harp, invented by Sebastian Erard in 1811 and equipped with 47 strings and 7 pedals, it is not difficult to discern the instrument whose origins are confused with myth and which, with a positivist spirit, we can trace back to the first applications of homo faber.
During the Romantic 19th century, in a context of French preference – already on the threshold of the Revolution the harp was the instrument of choice of Queen Marie Antoinette – we witness the progressive integration of the harp into the orchestral staff, consecrated by the treatise of Hector Berlioz. At the same time, the use of the harp in the opera theatre stabilized, as demonstrated by the refined timbral mix of the Meditation, taken from Thaïs by Jules Massenet (1842 – 1912). Suggestive and full of charm, traces of the operatic world can be found in the compositions of Giovanni Caramiello (1838 – 1938), for many years acclaimed harpist of the Teatro S. Carlo in Naples, author of a Duet on the chaste Diva by Bellini, for harp and piano, here offered in the transcription for solo harp by Davide Burani.
The exploitation of the harp culminates in the symphonic production of Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918), who often inserts two harps in the score and makes extensive use of glissandi to create an impressionistic sound. The Danses sacrée et profane were commissioned in 1904 by the Pleyel House, which intended to promote a new model of “chromatic” harp in competition with the aforementioned diatonic harp, a monopoly of the Erard firm. The new instrument failed to establish itself, but Debussy's Danses can, fortunately, be performed with the pedal harp thanks to the transcription by Henriette Renié, a famous French teacher and concert artist. Since their first performance on 6 November 1904 at the Concerts Colonne in Paris, the Danses have created a reference model for European composers, capable of exercising an influence comparable to that of the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth of 1902, recalled in the free piece Sighs op. 70, composed in 1914 for strings and harp by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934), to whom we owe some of the cornerstones of late Romantic string orchestra literature. Marcel Grandjany (1892 – 1974), an American harpist and composer of French origin, trained at the Paris Conservatory, dedicated the Aria in classic style to the harp and string ensemble in 1937, confirming the solidity of this union and the persistence of French harpistic taste in the world.

Production: Velut Luna
Recording: Marco Lincetto
Editing: Mattia Zanatta
Stereo Mix & mastering: Marco Lincetto
Critical text: Iole Di Gregorio
Layout: The Image
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