Albums of contemporary harp music don't appear every day, so Illuminations by Canadian harpist Judy Loman may attract listeners purely for its apparent novelty. But give this disc a hearing for more important reasons: the music is delightfully poetic and the program is filled with substantial original works, not just flashy etudes or slick arrangements of familiar material. The King David Sonata by Srul Irving Glick provides a sumptuous opening with its lush textures, placid moods, and delicate figurations, and Loman's ...
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Albums of contemporary harp music don't appear every day, so Illuminations by Canadian harpist Judy Loman may attract listeners purely for its apparent novelty. But give this disc a hearing for more important reasons: the music is delightfully poetic and the program is filled with substantial original works, not just flashy etudes or slick arrangements of familiar material. The King David Sonata by Srul Irving Glick provides a sumptuous opening with its lush textures, placid moods, and delicate figurations, and Loman's performance is highly atmospheric and evocative (though one may not necessarily find any Biblical imagery in this dreamy, neo-Impressionist work). R. Murray Schafer's freely rhapsodic Wild Bird pits a virtuosic violin part against an equally active harp accompaniment, and Loman's skills are seriously tested along with those of violinist Jacques Israelievitch. Glenn Buhr's Danses Abstraites pairs a flute and harp in lively repartee, though these dances seem almost conventional in this...
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