French Music for Harp solo

With this album, through a clever combination of original works and skilful arrangements, Margit-Anna Süß conjures up a uniquely French atmosphere and a very personal retrospect on the time when the great Pierre Jamet introduced her to the art of playing the harp in the French manner. It is to a certain extent a “combining” art which does not content itself with merely plucking the strings: the notes need to be in perfect sequence, and prepared for and shaped in a way which might have been thought possible only on the piano. This is how Debussy’s Deux Arabesques or Clair de Lune manage to sound so authentic when Margit-Anna Süß brings them to life on her instrument and this is also how her own arrangement of Ravel’s Pavane has lost none of its dreamy plenitude; and it is also why these mostly demanding original compositions never stray into the realm of mere prettiness. Whether it’s Alphonse Hasselmans allowing his fountain to overflow, Marcel Samuel-Rousseau writing variations on an old Christmas carol, or the internationally famous virtuoso Marcel Grandjany transforming a theme by Haydn – they all knew how French music for solo harp should sound.