"The effect produced by harps – except in music that is intended to be heard at close quarters in a salon – is all the better when they are more numerous."
Hector Berlioz
It's not for nothing that 'Un Bal' from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is an orchestral audition excerpt. But it remains a bit galling, after all that hard work, not to be able to hear anything beyond some pinging from the tops of the arpeggios, and maybe a few nervous buzzes and pedal twangs after figure 22.
What can be done? Conductors: instead of shouting at the harps to play louder all the time, you could ask the orchestra to play quieter. This is theoretically intelligent, but in reality doesn't usually work well either. The really cunning solution is what Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos has just done with the Spanish National Orchestra: insist on four harps instead of two. Et voilà: glorious loud whooshing worthy of the most glittering Viennese ballroom.
In his memoirs, Berlioz mentions the difficulty he had getting Symphonie Fantastique performed, because of a lack of capable harpists and harps. What a pity he died one hundred and forty-three years, one month, two weeks and three days before the concert in Madrid on January 22nd this year! He would have been happy to see Alexander Granados and Camac Ibérica lend the orchestra an Atlantide Prestige, bringing their harps up to four in number.
Spanish National Orchestra Principal Harpist Nuria Llopez with Selma García Ramos, Isabel Maicas Muñoz and Celia Zaballos Cuesta in Symphonie Fantastique
