Sept Sonates Progressives

Paris at the time of the Revolution, and immediately after, was a time when appreciation of music showed taste and cultural elegance. Many ladies had followed the vogue, which reached its apogee in the form of Marie Antoinette, of learning the harp.
    Not to be outdone, Josephine also learned the instrument and, like the former queen, chose as a teacher Francois Joseph Naderman, the most celebrated harp teacher and player of his day in Paris, and the son of a music publisher and harp maker (of the kind of harp used in this recording).
    F.J Naderman composed a wealth of literature for the harp, both for himself as a chamber and solo musician, as loyal promotion for the instruments made by family’s harp making business and also as teaching material. Some of these beguiling sonatas may even have been written as teaching material for Josephine.

Hear them as Naderman may have heard them - on a wonderful (reproduction) Naderman single-action harp and performed by a knowledgeable, historically aware and sensitive harpist.