David Watkins plays Louis Spohr Fantasy-video of harp fingerwork

David Watkins http://www.davidwatkins.info playing the Louis Spohr Fantasy, one of the cornerstones of the harp repertoire, during a concert at Hammerwood Park http://www.hammerwood.mistral.co.uk/concerts.htm

Of course the automatic volume control on the camera kills the dynamics so it's really worth seeking out a CD of David Watkins.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Spohr
• Fantasy
• Harp
• David
• Watkins
• Harpist

[seb25arpa]

While David Watkins is generally a fantastic technician, he's playing this piece too fast and has turned this gorgeous fantasia into a tedious etude. Some very sloppy pedaling, lack of style awareness, phrase inflection space between phrases in a number of places and tone control.

[latribe]

Well . . . I haven't heard better! Please can you record a version for YouTube to show us how it's done . . . and then I'll show it to David for comment . . .

:-)

[latribe]

Why only 3 stars for David playing this fantastic piece? Isn't he superb?

[ahtram12345]

I love it. how many string have this harp got :)

[DauwXelfje]

This is like heave... Please someone... Give me a Harp.. (L)_(L)

[muziektelevisie]

I'm relatively new into classical music, but I know I absolutely adore the harp. This piece was on an old lp I played alot during my childhood and i love it so much. I would love some tips on other solo piano harp pieces ;-)

[hammondplayer91]

@latribe My favourite version of this wonderful piece is played by the Dutch harpist Anton Sie, don't know whether any of you know him. I like it better than this interpretation here. According to seb25arpa, I think he's too fast. But: The fact, that he's able to play some of the difficult passages so damn fast, shows, what a professional technique he has.

[MegaQueen111]

I find the tempo he plays too fast for this marvellous piece....and it affected the character of the piece naturally...

[seb25arpa]

If and when I finish the large triple harp I'm building for myself, perhaps I should do just that. but in the mean time perhaps the playing of Reit Keppel and Masumi Nagisawa might shed some light.

[goldenstate2009]

He is superb!

Why only 3 stars? Because for every true genius born, there are at least a hundred mediocres of equal or greater force waiting to step on him.

[bastardtubeuser]

Ah ha ! latribe, i have a feeling from watching your videos over the last weeks that you have a very good idea why the appreciation for this is so poor. And I for one , a brittish home lurking musician, salute your efforts in facing this problem head on.

Thanks again for sharing this , and yes Mr.Watkins is superb !, even in the digital domain.