“Hannah Lash is a rarity: a harpist who is also a composer,” writes John Fleming in Saturday’s (11/16) Classical Voice North America. “So it was a notable occasion when Lash’s Double Concerto for piano, harp, and orchestra was given its world premiere by the Naples Philharmonic on Nov. 14. Pianist Jeremy Denk and the composer-harpist were the soloists, with Arvo Volmer conducting.” Lash’s Double Concerto was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. “Lash … has had several premieres already this season.… Her Peril of Dreams, a big work for two harps and orchestra (in which she will be one of the soloists), is scheduled for debut by the Seattle Symphony in April 2020…. Lash and Denk … meshed beautifully in the single-movement Double Concerto, which ran about 12 minutes…. The soloists carried the concerto, with the orchestra not making an appearance until eight pages into the score; thereafter the orchestra mainly served to supply a multi-colored texture against which a series of mercurial exchanges between harp and piano unspooled.” The concert also included Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Denk and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
Posted November 21, 2019
