The Harp’s Charm

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart lauded his works in 1784 for their delightful charm and »melting sweetness,« and Johann Friedrich Reichardt too had nothing but words of praise for this »highly inventive, pleasant composer with the most galant writing style of all.« This composer was Ernst Eichner, who during his short life of thirty-seven years first served as a court musician in Zweibrücken in the Palatinate and then at the court of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in Potsdam. The bassoon was his personal instrumental favorite, and he traveled throughout Europe as a gifted virtuoso bassoonist. His compositions, especially his symphonies, also delighted audiences in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. It also must have been in Frankfurt that he wrote his harp concertos, technically very difficult works that surely were intended for a particular virtuoso. One of the leading harpists of our time, Silke Aichhorn, has now recorded these wonderfully melodious works for cpo, along with two harp concertos traditionally ascribed to Ernst Eichner but now thought to be by Jean Théophile Eichner.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Ernst-Eichner-Harfenkonzerte-op-6-9/hnum/3097937