The Vienna Stories title of this release by harpist Anneleen Lenaerts is more personal than thematic. Only some of the pieces are from or about Vienna (although the inclusion of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 ("The Blue Danube Waltz") qualifies the collection as Viennese in the end. Lenaerts is the principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, where she has become an emerging star of her instrument. At the end of the program, she brings in some of her Philharmonic colleagues as a small string group. This is ...
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The Vienna Stories title of this release by harpist Anneleen Lenaerts is more personal than thematic. Only some of the pieces are from or about Vienna (although the inclusion of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 ("The Blue Danube Waltz") qualifies the collection as Viennese in the end. Lenaerts is the principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, where she has become an emerging star of her instrument. At the end of the program, she brings in some of her Philharmonic colleagues as a small string group. This is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the program, which evokes unusually nicely the atmosphere of a salon harp concert of a century or more ago. Most of the pieces are transcriptions of various ages, and Lenaerts contributes a Fantasy on La Bohème by Puccini of her own; it is indeed good to hear a new entry in the operatic paraphrase genre, which any 19th century listener would have taken as natural, but which is mighty rare these days. Listen to the 1914 harp version of Smetana's...
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