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TP213 Especially…
Alice Giles
7 Works for Harp
$23 (Australian dollars)
 buy at:
AMC -
Buywell - iTunes
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Alice Giles is unquestionably Australia’s best harpist. Since winning First Prize in the 8th Israel International Harp Contest at the age of 21, Alice has performed as soloist throughout the world and has had many works written for her.
She is in demand as a soloist and spends time every year performing overseas. She is also in demand as a teacher and loves giving masterclasses. She currently teaches harp at the Australian National University and has formed SHE (Seven Harp Ensemble) from amongst her current and former students. SHE’s first CD was released a few months ago on Tall Poppies (Bolmimerie, TP204).
On this CD Alice plays some of the 20th century masterpieces for harp, such as the Britten Suite and the Hindemith Sonata. The Berio Sequenza II is a special work for Alice, as Berio himself chose her as his favourite performer of this work, and she has played it for him throughout the world.
The Eberhard work was written “especially” for Alice, and the two works by Moshe Lustig were written for her husband Arnan Weisel’s mother, harpist Aviva Weisel who was married to Lustig until his untimely death. Alice has premiered these two gorgeous works. |
Benjamin Britten
| Suite for Harp Op 83 |
| Dennis Eberhard | Especially… |
| Moshe Lustig | Sonata |
| André Caplet | Deux Divertissements |
| Paul Hindemith | Sonate für Harfe |
| Moshe Lustig | Sonatine |
| Luciano Berio | Sequenza II |
REVIEWS
Just ten months ago Australian harpist Alice Giles launched a CD with SHE (Seven Harps Ensemble) featuring her colleagues and students at the Australian National University, Canberra, where she now teaches, after establishing an international career in Europe. This new disc`s title comes from “Especially ... “ written by Dennis Eberhard at the request of Giles, then a 22 year-old student in Cleveland. He was a composer for Cleveland Orchestra, among others, and his many grants included a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. Giles liked his writing style and felt he could conjure something interesting. (Sometimes it pays to go right to the top!).
His “Especially . . . “ explores all manner of effects, drawing sound-colours rarely heard from a harp with techniques such as ``bissbigliando`` (rapidly repeated figures), frenzied climaxes, resonances building without being muffled, `pedal buzzes’, even singing in quarter tones into the harp`s sound holes while playing. The vivid colours of Australian artist LisaJane Batki-Braun`s cover image reflects this dramatic music which did not faze the intrepid Giles. She tackled this music`s demands with the technical mastery she applied to Benjamin Britten`s sedate yet darkly tinged Suite for Harp, a set of contrasting scenes rather than dance movements, Moshe Lustig`s flourishing 17-minute Sonata and Sonatine, Paul Hindemith`s Sonata for Harp. Like Eberhard, Luciano Berio worked from treatises on modern harp technique by Carlos Salzedo to create his Sequenza II, another challenge for Giles. No wonder Berio praised the work of this extraordinary Australian technician and musician.
Patricia Kelly
Brisbane Courier Mail, February 2011 |
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