Harpists Fulton, Hurst Strike Mainly a Chord of Banality

Harpist DeWayne Fulton once graced the rosters of the Berlin and Vienna philharmonics but had his longest tenure in the lounge of the Warehouse Restaurant in Marina del Rey. In a recital Thursday night at Cal State Long Beach, he combined the technique of a symphonic virtuoso with the artistic inclinations of a Lawrence Welk. His former student Paul Hurst joined him as fellow arranger, soloist and accompanist.

Fulton claimed that the program--part of the Cal State Summer Arts event--was designed to appeal to as many as possible. In that effort, Hurst manned a Kurzweil K1200 sampler in lieu of orchestral or choral partnership for Fulton’s Salvi Arriana concert harp. The electronic backup held slightly more attraction and symphonic realism than a roller derby organ. It was awful in Fulton’s cutesy medley of tunes from “The Sound of Music,” worse in Hurst’s absurd, Hollywood-hype arrangement of music from “West Side Story” and embarrassing in Handel’s Harp Concerto in B-flat.

Hurst transformed Handel’s baroque orchestra into an obnoxious wall of sound, barely penetrable by any delicate ornaments and subtle voicing from the harp. It did, however, cover Fulton’s memory slips and even made unsynchronized moments between the pair seem comparatively irrelevant.

Hurst got to strut his stuff with his own arrangements for unaccompanied harp: a colorless transcription of the middle movement of Rodrigo’s Concerto de Aranjuez and a light and stylish version of the “Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin. He also served some advanced student recital Schlag--”La Source” by Albert Zabel.

Without his partner, Fulton offered his own fussy versions of movie themes by David Raksin and Anton Karas, for “Laura” and “The Third Man.” Then he finally ventured into pure classics via a forgettable Romance in G Minor--from the set of 24 romances by 19th century harpist Elias Parish-Alvars--and ended his journey with a quietly impressive performance of Smetana’s “Moldau,” in charming arrangement by Hanus Trnecek.