My voyage as a musician is somewhat divided into two parts, as I see it. There was me during my study time and me after my study time, on my own two feet. When I think back of my study time, of course a few experiences stayed with me clearly, including moments of discovering new pieces and performing them. Amongst those moments are my encounters with Debussy’s Danses for harp and string orchestra and Ravel’s Introduction et Allegro.
As it is often the case with good music, there is a path you need to take, shaping, adjusting the music so it becomes your own, but the drive to do this comes from the music itself. I was invited to perform the Danses by Debussy with the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra during a tour in New York, I was fifteen at the time. I prepared the piece far in advance, to be totally ready for my American Debut. I was immediately strung by the opening chords of the piece. A quite simple line of chords, appearing after a few bass notes of the orchestra, dancing on the pentatonic scale, but difficult to get the timing right! Then I knew already, this is a life time piece. And it still feels this way, every time I perform it, it feels as a life time goal to make the opening chords the most striking part of the piece. A good way to strengthen the concentration I must say, because everything that comes after that lays on the foundation of those chords. The beauty of music; it never stops.
“Listen to this recording” my teacher Erika Waardenburg said as she put on a cassette recorder. First I heard scraping sounds and soon realized it was a LP that was put on a cassette. The sounds that came from it were bend like crazy, but what an atmosphere! I heard the recording of Maurice Ravel himself conducting his Introduction et Allegro, a piece he wrote in one week time. Unbelievably beautiful in color and dynamics. The harp, string quartet, flute and clarinet were so well balanced and were dancing together in my imagination. In a way I have always felt the presents of Ravel when I play this piece, approving or disapproving of my interpretation? I will never know.
These two pieces have stayed with me, being the pearls of the harp repertoire. I am mostly grateful to both of the composers that they created these works, guiding the harp into the next century and many hearts of harpists and listeners.
