Catrin Finch, Lower Machen Festival (From South Wales Argus)

Catrin Finch, Lower Machen Festival

12:23pm Monday 29th June 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Of all classical music's young superstars, Welsh harpist Catrin Finch is currently shimmering brighter than most.

Her inspired idea to transpose J S Bach's Goldberg Variations from the keyboard to her own instrument has led to a popular recording and virtually unconditional praise.

At this final festival concert in St Michael’s Church, it was easy to see why, though just as easy to have remained sceptical before she had embarked on the seventy-minute work with the sort of composure that prefaces a ritual.

The problem of music for a composer is simply stated - how to keep going without repeating yourself. One way is to state a theme and write variations on it.

The format has produced colossal works, of which the Goldberg is one, but it can sometimes make elegance seem like an end in itself, with the literal end continually deferred.

Finch's 'version' gains from her nimble-fingered adherence to the original score, the glorious sound she gets from the harp and her ability to turn many of the thirty variations into stand-alone items, like polished artefacts.

Playing a large concert harp, she also has to resist the temptation to improve on the harpsichord's somewhat monotonous voice.

At this performance the articulation was not always as clear as it would be when depressing keys rather than plucking strings, an irony raised by the fact that the harpsichord sound is ultimately a plucked one and, like it, the harp has no sustaining pedal. But, as a ‘live’ event, her concert was unmissable.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)