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Published: Wednesday, 22 January 2025 at 11:05 AM

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Handel • Tailleferre
Handel: Harp Concerto; Tailleferre: Harp Concertino
Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp); Berlin Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena
Berlin Phil BHPR25050 (digital)   27:28 mins 

Clip: Tailleferre: Concertino for Harp and Orchestra – II. Lento

This short and sweet digital release marries two showpieces for the harp, one very familiar the other rarely performed, and the latter is by far the more interesting one. Handel’s harp concerto was a convivial trifle composed for the ode Alexander’s Feast, and Marie-Pierre Langlamet was captivated by it when she first heard it as a child. She regards it as a masterpiece and sees its architectonic shape in the form of fractals – patterns that repeat forever.

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She doesn’t regret playing it on a modern instrument – the historically correct one, with its low string tension, would apparently be for her ‘unplayable’, but she relishes the greater dynamic range of a modern harp. She also likes the discipline that her instrument’s repeating passages should never sound identical. The outer movements are certainly well-known, but the gently lachrymose Larghetto is a real trouvaille.

Meanwhile the prolific Germaine Tailleferre was persuaded by Gabriel Fauré to take up composition, Ravel taught her orchestration and Charlie Chaplin was her four-hand companion, so it’s no surprise that her Concertino for Harp and Orchestra should be enchanting: why on earth has it languished forgotten for the last hundred years? It allows Langlamet to exhibit her delicate virtuosity, but its main virtue lies in the kaleidoscopic brilliance of its orchestral effects, which proclaim her links with the Parisian composers known as Les Six. There are by turns Stravinskian, Bartókian and Poulenc-style moments, and the whole thing feels liberated and improvised. Michael Church