We were treated to the first performance of Savourna Stevenson’s three-movement Concerto for Harp. Savourna Stevenson is one of Scotland great harp players who has been composing mostly classical music for the harp too.
To play the pedal harp for this first performance of the Concerto for Pedal Harp was Catrin Finch who is perhaps best known as a former Royal Harpist to The Prince of Wales, an appointed revived from 1873 and which she held from 2000 to 2004. The pedal harp uses the mechanical action of pedals to change the pitches of the strings
The first movement is particularly lively - perhaps the film music to accompany a documentary about a butterfly or a lively rabbit. The second is more serious and intense whilst the third brings together the first two. It won’t be long before it becomes an examination piece - just as is the other work Catrin Finch played for us - Debussy’s Danses sacrée profane.
The twelve member strings, nine standing and three perching, opened the concert with Debussy’s Marche écossaise and finished with Rudolf Barshai’s arrangement of Ravel’s String Quartet in F.
Deservedly there was a bouquet of flowers for the composer and for the guest harpist in the concert that ends another successful season for Scottish Ensemble.
Event: Thursday 7 June 2012 at 7.30pm