The Harp

[eschiss1]

Dang!  That's the only sample?

Erf, it seems so, and I think it's out of print- at least, it's not listed at the MDG site that I can see (actually, it's a "Hochschule für Musik Detmold" CD, not a MDG one, now that I look at the U of Cincinnati catalog listing, so no wonder!). Northwestern University and the University of Cincinnati both have the CD, if they let it on ILL and if you have such privileges. That might work too.
Eric

[albion]

There are also some outstanding British works: Bantock's Celtic Symphony (1940) for strings and six harps, and William Alwyn's beautiful concerto Lyra Angelica (1954).

[Peter1953]

Thank you all for your contributions.

An interesting figure seems to be the English harpist Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849), according to Berlioz the Liszt of the harp. See http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:l5LHhcqiMLUJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Parish_Alvars+parish-alvars+composer&cd=5&hl=nl&ct=clnk&gl=nl
There are some harp concertos and chamber music with harp available on CD.

David mentioned another celebrated harpist, the Frenchman Nicolas Charles Bochsa (1789-1856). I used to had on audio tape a Concerto for Harp and Orchestra in D minor, op. 15 and Air Irlandais for Harp and String Orchestra.

[Hofrat]

If I am not mistaken, Beethoven scored a harp in his ballet "Creatures of Prometheus."  Berlioz utilized a harp in "Harold in Italy" and Lalo in "Symphonie Espagnole."  Of course, none of the above are unheard.

[FBerwald]

Parish Alvars's Concerto for 2 harps in D minor is beautiful - especially the last movement. Just saw a splendid rendition in a video of the 3rd International Harp Festival. Unfortunately the credits are in Russian so couldn't say who the soloists are.

Interestingly he seems to have written a Piano Concerto in G minor (dedicated to Liszt!) 

[semloh]

Parish-Alvars' works for harp and orchestra pop up on a number of CDs/LPs, and I think they are delightful, despite the difficulties of marrying the delicacy of the harp with the power of the orchestra. Same goes for the Gliere concerto, IMHO. But, perhaps one has to love the harp!

[FBerwald]

I'm not very crazy about the harp but the Parish-Alvars compositions are very effective.

[eschiss1]

There's many works with harp and for harp from the Romantic era, so far as I know, and even more for which the harp is one of several alternatives including piano in an ensemble. Consider the works of Gabriel Verdalle (1847-1918), Alfred Holý (1866-1948), Alphonse Hasselmans of course, Edmond Schuëcker, Charles Oberthür, Félix Godefroid... (and somewhat later, Henriette Renié) (see eg this list at IMSLP - not subdivided by era but subdividable - to begin with. (List of works featuring harp not necessarily harp solo, so contains - for example!... - duos, trios, orchestral works, with harp by eg Renié, Ferdinand Ries, Debussy and many others (Oberthür wrote quite a few of these), though if one uses the category-walker link provided to limit to composers from the Romantic era or works described on their pages as being in a Romantic style, some of these will not appear. Of course by the nature of the site only those we actually have uploaded will appear. Worldcat and other sources are useful for further searches from those starting-off points etc though, I suspect.)

[eschiss1]

Actually, while looking at the link I posted above, I notice this by Ludwig Thuille for chorus, violin and harp (or alternately piano), which looks interesting. IMSLP has only an arrangement posted (... not a reduction, but an arrangement for chorus and orchestra!...), but the arrangement includes a harp/piano part in the score (possibly the original- not sure?), it seems, and maybe the original parts can be found somewhere for performance, if it looks worthwhile... Thuille has seemed so in general to me.

[kolaboy]

Francois Joseph Dizi wrote a fair amount for the harp - though no concerted works, I think...

[Double-A]

There is at any rate a fair amount of chamber and solo music for harp from the Romantic era.  Just off the top of my head:  Donizetti: Sonata for violin (or flute) and harp ("sonata" is bluffing:  I'd call it "rondino with introduction".  But it is a pretty piece of about 5 minutes, quite effectual without being terribly difficult.  I used to have a girl friend who played the harp and this piece was one of the few that did not exceed her capabilities, so we played it often.)
Saint-Saëns:  The piece is called "Fantaisie" if I remember correctly, also for violin and harp.  I find it boring and repetitive but then I am far from a Saint-Saëns fan.  Spohr has 4 good sonatas for violin and harp and a trio for violin, cello and harp  which is not on IMSLP).  (I want to recommend his already mentioned sinfonia concertante for violin and harp; I like it best among Spohr's concertos.)

Decades ago I was in a concert where a famous French harpist (I have forgotten her name) played a concerto by (I believe) Poulenc.  There I found out that a temperamental and competent player can get much more noise out of a harp than some of the above posters seem to believe and that the harp is not quite such a wallflower among the instruments (outside the remit I know but I am hoping to make a point about the harp).

[eschiss1]

Double-A: of course. Not only noise but other things (Frank Martin wrote a work iirc, Benjamin Britten's suite for harp, etc.) And the early 20th century had the brief life of the chromatic harp (which allowed much more flexible playing than the pedal harp.)

[Christopher]

The piece by Juon about which I posted 2 weeks ago, Ingeborg's Lament, has a fairly substantial part for the harp, though it's not concertante by any means.

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5527.msg76153.html#msg76153

[Double-A]

Eric, just to set the record straight:  The word "noise" in my first post is meant strictly to characterize the harp's capacity to be loud.  No depreciating innuendo as to the music was intended.  In fact it was a good piece very convincingly played, which is probably the reason I still remember the occasion.

[eschiss1]

Ok!
By the way did anyone mention  this 20-minute work by Graener for harp and strings from 1904-8?...