Rondo Magazin 30 Aug 2025 Manuel Brug
There are certainly more unpleasant ways to perceive the passage of time than through Xavier de Maistre’s graceful ageing. The French harpist is a handsome man who also seems to be ageing very well. After all, we see this regularly on his album covers. It is now 15 years since the 51-year-old gave up his solo position with the Vienna Philharmonic in favour of a solo career that has developed in illustrious fashion. And that has brought us his tenth Sony album to date.
Once again, it takes us back to the Baroque era (although he is reluctant to play Bach) and is dedicated to George Frideric Handel. There is only one original work by Handel featured here – albeit a particularly popular one – the Concerto in B flat major, Op. 4. De Maistre had not yet recorded this piece; here it is presented in his own arrangement, which is thoroughly and intricately ornamented yet never overloaded. The elegant Festival Strings Lucerne, conducted by Daniel Dodds, blend in softly and radiantly as a non-period ensemble. Furthermore, the album features coherent harp arrangements by de Maistre’s pupils of the great organ concertos in F major and D minor, which Handel had tailored entirely to his own manual skills as interludes for his operas. We also hear the Passacaglia from the Harpsichord Suite in G minor, HWV 432, for solo harp; a ‘Tema con variazioni’ for solo harp; and the Minuet in G minor, HWV 434/4, with additional accompaniment on the piano by Julien Quentin.
All of this is played with delicacy and clarity, sparklingly beautiful and full of spirited variety. The arrangements do not do the music any injustice. And yet one can better appreciate the qualities of this collection by listening to it in smaller instalments. So, rather than listening to it all in one go for the mass market, this is ‘Handel for the harp’ best savoured in small doses by connoisseurs.
