The Philadelphia HarpMusicFest presents able musicians playing attractive programs. All it needs is an audience.

Philadelphia HarpMusicFest. Music by Salzedo, Debussy, Cherubini, Handel, et al. Harpists Erica Goodman, Saul Davis Zlatkovski, True North Harp Duo (Lynne Aspnes and John Wickey), Harps Afire Harp Duo (Virginia Flanagan and Alison Simpson). Lois Herbine, flute; Susan Arnold, viola; Susan Whitelack, Tracey Chebra, sopranos; Linda Mindlin, mezzo-soprano. Saul Davis Zlatkovski, director. October 7-12, 2010 at Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany, 330 South 13th St. www.harpmusicfest.com.

Crowded program, empty pews

The Philadelphia HarpMusicFest possessed all the ingredients for a successful event.  The musicians brought to Philadelphia by organizer Saul Zlatkovski all play in the same league as the best performers on the local chamber circuit. The music they performed crowded the five programs with established favorites and unfamiliar works for combinations we hardly ever get to hear, such as harp duos. 

The only thing the Fest lacked was an audience.

The Phillies playoff games may have been one reason the attendance consisted of a scattered handful of people at each concert, but I suspect a concert devoted entirely to the harp just doesn’t sound that interesting to many people.

If you ignored the HarpFest because you thought it would present you with one harp soloist after another, you were misinformed. The HarpFest offered as much musical variety as the programs presented by chamber groups like the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble and Mimi Stillman’s Dolce Suono series.  I attended three of the five concerts, and each was different.

Friday night featured a harp duo playing music arranged for the unique sound of two harps. Sunday concentrated on the combination pioneered by Debussy with his Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. Monday featured another harp duo and added vocal interest in the form of two sopranos and a mezzo.

He pushed the boundaries

The festival commemorated the 125th birthday of Carlos Salzedo, the influential French harpist and composer who created the harp program at Curtis and pioneered many 20th-Century advances in harp technique.

As a composer, Salzedo is interesting mostly because of the way his work pushed the boundaries of harp technique. Most of the program’s original Salzedo compositions were essentially technical displays that featured novel approaches to the ancient art of drawing music from strings with your bare hands.

As an arranger, on the other hand, Salzedo left us some choice music. My personal favorite is a Ravel piano duet that Salzedo arranged for flute, viola and harp. I heard it for the first time at a Dolce Suono concert last season, and it instantly became one of the highlights of my musical life.

It sounded just as attractive in the hands of the three musicians who played it at the end of the Sunday night concert: flutist Lois Herbine, violist Susan Arnold and harpist Erica Goodman. The combination of Ravel’s music and Salzedo’s arrangement works so well that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t originally written for the flute, viola and harp combination.

Debussy’s trio remains the Number One work for this threesome. But Salzedo’s transcription is a strong contender for second place.

For eyes as well as ears

Salzedo’s own compositions may have been less appealing musically, but they created interesting effects, visually as well as musically. One of the pleasures of a live harp concert is the hand ballet that produces the sonic effects. In that sense the harp is the most visual instrument in the modern orchestral lineup.

Salzedo was only one of the composers represented on the three programs. Zlatlkovski’s programming included a stately Renaissance pavanne arranged for two harps; Baroque music by Rameau and Handel; and 19th- and 20th-Century music by Faure, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Gluck and Varèse. 

Flutist Lois Herbine contributed two solo works, in addition to her collaborations with the trio, and Susan Whitenack, Tracey Chebra and Linda Medlin ran through a vocal repertoire that included French folk songs and four duets by another French master, Luigi Cherubini.

Like many writers, I’ve given talks to disappointingly minuscule audiences. It’s a demoralizing experience. You have to keep reminding yourself that the people who did come deserve the best you have to offer. The troupers at all three concerts I attended played as if the pews at St. Luke and the Epiphany were packed hip to hip all the way to the back of the balconies.♦


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