"The music on this CD ranges in periods from a Bach lute suite to the most modern piece, Rota's Sarabanda e Toccata. Rota is best known for his movie soundtracks, so you may find the sound isn't what you might expect from a "modern" piece. 

Grandjany and Salzedo were probably the two most influential harpists of this century. They were both composers as well, with somewhat contrasting styles. Grandjany's Children's Hour Suite is very free, and definitely French. The Salzedo Variations were written, as the title says, in the ancient style; Salzedo composed a theme and then treated it to various forms of variations (double, bourrée, etc.) 

The short prelude by Prokofieff, used as an encore when I performed this program, was composed for "piano or harp". There are currently two versions of it, the original, and an edition in which Salzedo reversed the fingering of the pattern which the right hand plays throughout most of the piece. As Salzedo says "Unfortunately (like Mozart in his Concerto for flute and harp) Prokofieff failed to take into account the fact that a passage written for the piano cannot necessarily be played fluently on the harp". I have used the Salzedo edition. 

It would by hard for me to choose a favorite piece from this program, since they are all pieces I enjoy performing, however, two of my special favorites are Grandjany's Children's Hour, and Godefroid's La Danses des Sylphes. The Godefroid is especially fun to play, with a lot of opportunity to show off. The ending , where one has to leap up and grab the highest E a number of times without looking, is especially satisfying when it's pulled off". 

Josh Layne