Boieldieu, Harp Concerto in C major

There have been minor composers in all ages. We call them so because their work has not lasted and only a tiny part of it has reached us. But in their time they were outstanding musicians who managed to make a living from their craft thanks to a good share of talent. They knew also celebrity and prestige. The Frenchman François-Adrien Boieldieu, a contemporary of Beethoven, was one of them.

Born in Rouen in 1775, at the age of eighteen he wrote his first opera. Later he specialized in "opéra comique", composing no less than 38 operas, earning him the place of the main French opera composer of the first quarter of the 19th century.

In 1804, he moved to St. Petersburg as a composer for the Tsar's court, with a commitment to produce three operas a year. He did not live up to such a high expectation but in the seven years he stayed there he managed to compose ten.

François-Adrien Boieldieu
(1775 - 1834)

Back in Paris, it was not difficult for him to win back the Parisian audience, but from 1823, when Gioachino Rossini settled there, something changed in the Parisian taste and he had to start dealing with the Rossinian crescendo. True to his style, Boieldieu wrote in response his masterpiece, the Dame Blanche, with enormous success in France and even internationally, as it remained in the European repertoire for decades.

Harp Concerto in C major, op 77

Boieldieu's instrumental repertoire is somewhat meager, although as a young man he wrote some pieces for piano. Having befriended Sebastian Erard, inventor of a new type of harp, he also wrote for this instrument. His concerto in C major, from 1801, is a striking and melodious work that retains to this day a central place in the standard repertoire.

Movements:

00       Allegro brillante

11:25  Largo

15:21  (atacca subito) Allegro agitato

The brilliant rendition is by Mexican harpist Baltazar Juárez, accompanied by the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, conducted by Rafael Payare.