Elizabeth Hainen - Music for Solo Harp

Interesting fact

I read it in a magazine a few months ago that there were two musical instruments, which had a particularly good influence on a human body. Solo harp and solo violin create unique sound waves. I also found out that almost all of the harpists are long-livers.

I like classic music but I am not sure I heard solo harp before. I decided to buy this CD not only for my `soul' but for my `body' too.


I really enjoy this CD. It contains pieces by my favorite composers (F.Liszt, M.I. Glinka, F.Chopin). The music is very calm and pleasant.
March 25, 2008

Harp Music

I thoroughly enjoy this CD. It is quite relaxing, and soothing. I use it when I do Yoga and when I meditate, but it is also nice just to listen to. I would highly recommend this title. March 29, 2007

Absolutely beautiful

Now this person can play! No strumming to make airy sounds. Real classical music! Only the harp, and it's enough. Absolutely beautiful. August 24, 2006

Beautiful contemplative music.

Elizabeth Hainen does a super job on this CD with a broad range of pieces composed originally for harp. There is enough diversity among the selections to keep the CD from becoming monotanous. I found the Impromptu Op. 28 by Hugo Reinhold to be a surprizingly delightful work with which I was unfamiliar prior to purchasing the CD. The selections range from classical works by Rosetti, intricate and complex, to more emotional romantic works by Liszt.

The solo harp has an odd immediacy and minimalism that can be quite meditative and pensive at times. Of course the solo harp can also be full of fluff and candy but there is little of that in this careful selection of music.

Louis Spohr's Fantasie Op. 35 has a meditative quality, in which the silence between the notes is tangible. I recomend the entire selection of music. April 14, 2006

Gorgeous!

For a long time, I've loved music for the solo harp. For a long time, too, I've (please forgive me) not been a fan of the market of solo harp recordings. Why? Honestly, it comes down to the selection of peices. That is, too many solo harp records either tend to fall into a mode of ultra-glissando bombasticness, or are simply trying to be too 'pretty' and end up instead as pretty boring.

That is no more. This CD is neither. We have a wide range of classical and romantic pieces here. Instead of the 'showpiece' mentality of relying way too much on glissando heavy arpeggiation, these peices are very tasteful and melodic, all the while being well suited for harp (both single- and double-action by the way). Second, while a few of these peices are quite pretty and charming, there is enough of a mix here to keep things from being 'too' polite and ornament-like.

The show stealers? My favorites here are Rosetti's sonata 2 (and Rosetti really is a great classical period composer so you should check him out anyway), both Liszt arrangements, and Willhelm Posse's etudes. But as I said before, these peices range from a fantastically tense harp solo from a Donizetti opera to a Chopin etude. Quite diverse, and all of the pieces have a different beauty to them.

I've not even mentioned Elizabeth Hainen yet. What is most striking is that while these pieces cover such diverse territory, she plays each in a style completely appropriate to it. The Rosetti, for instance, she plays in the 'pretty' and lyrical fashion one would expect from a classical period etude, while the Liszt 'Sospiro', she plays with the grace and out-and-out emotionalism that Liszt himself likely would have wanted. Long and short, she keeps it appropriate at all times.

This recording is not to be missed, both for harp officionados and casual listeners. January 24, 2004

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