[...]
The composer, Oskar Morawetz, wrote a concerto for the gifted Toronto-born
harpist Erica Goodman that really is a concerto, not simply an orchestral piece
with a few glissandos thrown in for decoration.
The harp is by no means an easy instrument to write for in an orchestral context
and Morawetz has managed to make its voice not only heard but heard as an active
exponent of important musical ideas. It is not, in other words, the icing on the
cake but part of the cake itself.
The musical material sounds predominantly serious in tone and notably free of
technical gimmicks. The harpist drums her fingers on the sounding board at the
end of the first movement and strikes the strings with a tuning fork at the end
of the second, but Morawetz is no avant-gardist trying to shock the ear.
[...]
