The repertoire for baroque harp is not large, at least not if you only look for music that has been expressly written for this gentle and affecting instrument. If you are prepared to plunder the keyboard and lute repertoire, however, the possibilities become considerably greater; and if you can play with the skill and musicianship of Andrew Lawrence-King, then the fact that you are offering up transcriptions quickly becomes an irrelevance. Combining the technical possibilities of a harpsichord with the dynamic flexibility of a lute (though over a wider range), the harp emerges here as an almost ideal solo instrument, able to escape its inevitable Celtic associations and stand as an interpretative tool of real power.
The first and last pieces on this disc are genuine harp pieces: the little ‘symphony’ which follows an aria for David in Handel’s Saul, and a pretty tune from Wales. In between comes some real heavyweight music, including Bach’s C major Prelude from Book 1 of the 48 and the aria from the Goldberg Variations borrowed from the harpsichord (the latter played with all the carefree insouciance of someone who knows he does not have to follow it with an hour’s worth of variations), and a C minor Prelude and a transcription of the E major Solo Violin Partita borrowed from the lute. The results are completely successful, particularly the Partita, every one of whose complex moods and gestures Lawrence-King seems able to conquer with surprising vigour. It is unlikely that you will ever hear much of the music on this disc played more expressively, but while this might not be difficult in the case of the little-known keyboard pieces by Buxtehude and Weckmann, it is really saying something when it applies to music as well known as Bach’s for solo violin. Occasionally I felt that Lawrence-King was trying a little too hard to show off just how big his crescendos and diminuendos can be, but in general this is outstandingly sensitive and musical playing.'