Marzetti, Sofia
Metamorphoses: Folk Songs And Virtuoso Transcriptions For Harp
Metamorphoses considers the harp a medium between song, theatre, national memory and technical experiment. The works of Giovanni Caramiello bring the Neapolitan harp school anew to light: popular tunes, romances and operatic recollections flow into fantasias and studies, from Rimembranza di Napoli op. 6 and Le Serenate del Vesuvio op. 12 to the fantasy on Aida op. 11 with Letizia Belmondos alternative finale. Saint-Saënss Fantaisie op. 95 introduces French clarity/ Salzedo turns the ancient style into timbral enquiry/ Smetanas Moldau, transcribed by Hanus Trnecek, condenses the symphonic poem into the manual geography of the harp/ Glière finally returns variation to expansive song. The result is a survey of considerable documentary value, founded on the metamorphoses of musical writing.