In this DenizBank Concert, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the Italian guest conductor Alessandro Cedrone (director of the choir of the Ankara State Theatre from 2006 to 2008), is performing Reinhold Glière’s Harp Concerto in E flat major, Opus 74,. with the French-American harpist Anne Sophie Bertrand, solo harpist with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and an Associate at the Royal Academy of Music in London/ In the second half, they are playing Beethoven’s Symphony No 1 in C major, Opus 21. The number of concertos written especially for the harp is quite small. Reinhold Glière (1875-1956), a Russian composer of German and Polish descent, wrote this three-movement concerto for Ksenia Erdely, a teacher in the Harp Department at the Moscow Conservatoire (where he himself sometimes taught), in 1938. Erdely’s technical advice resulted in so many changes to the work that Glière offered to credit her as co-composer, but she declined. Wikipedia tells us that the music ‘combines features that are redolent of both the Viennese classical style and Russian romantic nationalism’. I myself am a Glière fan, being especially impressed by his Symphony No 3, subtitled Ilya Muromets, which I would advise anyone to listen to for its alternately lyrical and dramatic style and its outstanding orchestration. Here is a link to my blog on a performance of the composer’s Horn Concerto in B flat major by the CRR Orchestra and horn-player Can Kiracı in May last year. The blog contains an account of Glière’s career and a description of the characteristics of his music. Beethoven’s four-movement Symphony No 1 in C major, probably written between 1799 and 1800, was first published in 1801. This description by Michael Clive on the ‘Utah Symphony’ website gives a good general overview of the work. I definitely agree with his emphasis (in the fifth paragraph) on the abrupt tonal shifts that shocked some contemporary listeners. Erik Levi, writing on the ‘Classical Music’ website, is a little more technical, giving greater prominence to the subject of the work’s orchestration. (An aside: I wonder if this is the Erik Levi who was a contemporary of mine at Manchester Grammar School, and whom I once heard play the solo part in a school performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 2?) Here is his article.
