Music Reviews : Harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet’s Quiet Triumph

The first thing one notices about the harp in recital, at least in Marie-Pierre Langlamet’s hands, is what a quiet, mesmerizing instrument it is. Its sound draws the listener in rather than comes at him. It fascinates, like fading embers in a fireplace.

Which ought to qualify it as one of the premier recital instruments. That it isn’t may, or may not be, a question of repertory, as Langlamet--winner of the 1992 International Harp Contest in Israel and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra--underlined in her Ambassador Auditorium program Monday night: part transcriptions, part original harp music, three-quarters compelling, one-quarter pleasant but typical salon fare.

The first half proved engrossing musicwise, and Langlamet played it all with unassuming grace, concentration and commanding technique. A set of Scarlatti sonatas received pliant and pointed treatment, each line becoming lyrical in quality.

In fluid, breathing readings, her playing in a set of Debussy pieces--the first “Arabesque,” “Reverie” and the “Valse Romantique”--made the piano originals sound like transcriptions. Britten’s engaging Suite, Opus 83, originally for harp, goes against type, with a hesitant fugue, a hymn and syncopated rhythms all around suggestive of Spanish dance.

On the second half, Langlamet offered the first performance of Nathan Currier’s “Dirge,” a brief, effective work making use of widely spaced textures, acerbic harmony and a descending line motif.

With four of Wilhelm Posse’s Etudes, Langlamet suddenly slouched to genre music, and then closed with a harp standard, Faure’s Impromptu, Opus 86. Marcel Tournier’s “Au Matin” offered more of the same in encore, and it seemed that in the end her recital had swerved back to the stereotypical image of the instrument, after avoiding it all along. But she made it all captivating.