Concerto for Pedal Harp by Savourna Stevenson - Celebrating 200 years of the modern pedal harp and dedicated to the composers and players who championed the pedal harp through the 19th and 20th centuries. Commissioned by Holywell Music and subsidised by Creative Scotland.
This work was first premiered by international soloist Catrin Finch and the Scottish Ensemble in the summer of 2012 to mark the bicentenary of the invention of Erard’s double action mechanism for the pedal harp. Savourna’s concerto was well-received by audiences at performances in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Herald’s Michael Tumelty describing it as:
“…direct music, from the heart and to the heart, absolutely open and totally honest in its integrity and expressive qualities…The concerto, full of whole-tone and pentatonic implications, and lovingly played by Finch with expressive delicacy and an alluring sense of elan, is actually a voluptuously Romantic piece, unashamedly gorgeous in its first movement, with more than a hint of tango, a wonderfully touching sense of yearning, perhaps melancholy, in its second, and a darker, striking flavour of Bernard Hermann in the harmonies and mood of its finale.”
The cadenza in the first movement of the concerto is likely to be particularly interesting to those wishing to study or teach the work at an institution such as the Royal Academy of Music and would be an ideal audition piece.
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