Magdalena Hoffmann 
Nightscapes for harp  
(DG) 
5*

GERMAN harpist Magdalena Hoffmann’s Deutsche Grammophon debut album for solo harp is inspired by notions around different nightly landscapes. 

A special time for all human beings and a very good time for music and dancing, the Nocturne over the ages. Chopin and John Field at the heart of the album, that comprises both original pieces for solo harp and compositions for piano, transcribed by Hoffmann herself, who portrays a multitude of nightscapes, from those seen to those known by intuition. 

“At night everything becomes more intimate, more deeply felt, more multilayered,” she observes. 

“The darkness encourages an inward gaze, while the soul stretches its wings and so does the imagination. Whether in dreams or during sleepless nights, the limitations placed on our minds by the (every) day begin to melt away. My instrument creates a special space for this nocturnal intimacy, but also for the fantastical and magical.”  

Nightscapes opens with Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s Notturno in G flat major, written in 1896, originally composed for solo piano. Working around slow cinematic bass lines, fluctuating floating chords, opening into lyrical trills prior to a restful conclusion. The playing is exquisite, precise, intense yet highly lyrical. 

Another highlight are the two Nocturnes for piano by the genre’s inventor, John Field, an Irish piano composer who emigrated to Russia in the early 19th century, becoming a major inspiration for the Russian piano school and Frederic Chopin. Field’s B Flat Major is rich in melodically long lines backed by complex undulating rhythms.

The German Romantic composer Clara Schumann’s Notturno in F minor is a unsettling slow introspective interpretation of the night. Benjamin Britten’s five-movement Suite for Harp, a tour de force of harp technique rich in tone, built around an otherworldly central Nocturne, The Nocturne for the Left Hand Alone by American jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch builds a modern bridge to the present. 

Complementing are a number of dance inspired works. Three waltzes by Chopin as well as two original works for harp: Marcel Tournier’s La danse du moujik and fellow French virtuoso harpist Henriette Renié’s Danse des lutins. The album closes with Chopin’s Nocturne in F sharp minor Op 48 No 2, a slow work of solace.

Recorded in the Berlin, Meistersaal, the album engineering captures the complex sonic beauty of Hoffmann’s harp. A sharp, crystal-like quality in the high and mid frequencies combined with a warm analogue glow in the bass range. It will be interesting to learn how her work progresses with further contemporary, experimental composers if she chooses but Nightscapes is a triumph of soul, intellect and the mysterious surreal night. 

Watch the Chopin Nocturne in F sharp minor Op. 48 at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE2t2x2xTEc