Recital with Sarah O'Brien (Harp) and Gabriel Vieira (Harp) at the Vinorama Ermatingen

A harp recital? The opportunity to do so is extremely rare, far too rare. Even more so for an evening with two harps. Sarah O'Brien, a harpist with a wealth of experience, has teamed up with Gabriel Vieira, her master student at the Zurich University of the Arts; together with him, she offers us a multifaceted foray through the French music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with reminiscences of the Baroque period and an excursion into the contemporary. In between, they introduce themselves as soloists, but mostly they play in pairs - and conjure up intoxicating opulence with their delicate-sounding instruments. That this happens in the Ermatinger Vinorama has its own coherence. Long before it found its place in the late Romantic orchestra, the harp, widely believed to be the instrument of King David, was at home in the salons of high society of both noble and bourgeois origin - perhaps there was also a harp in the rooms in which the Vinorama welcomes us. Possibly even two of them.

The program in detail:

François-Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
Deuxième Duo, allegro vivace (1796)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Préludes, premier livre: La Fille aux cheveux de lin (1909/10).
Original for piano, arrangement by John Escosa

François Couperin (1668-1733)
Le Tic toc choc ou Les Maillotins (1722).
Original for harpsichord, arrangement by Sarah O'Brien
Sarah O'Brien (harp)

Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937)
Impromptu-Caprice op. 9 (circa 1901)
Gabriel Vieira (harp)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ma Mère l'Oye (1910).
Original for piano 4hd., arrangement by John Escosa

Claude Debussy
Suite bergamasque, No. 3: Clair de Lune (1890).
Original for piano, arrangement by Carlos Salzedo.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Impromptu op. 86bis (1904)
Sarah O'Brien (harp)

Gabriel Fauré
Une Châtelaine en sa tour op. 110 (1918)
Gabriel Vieira (harp)

Bernard Andrès (*1941)
Parvis: Cortège et Danse (1974)

The artists

Sarah O'Brien

After performing for over twenty years as principal harpist with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and the Munich Philharmonic, Sarah O'Brien has devoted herself entirely to her solo performances, chamber music, and teaching as professor of harp at the Zurich University of the Arts and the Basel University of Music since 2014. She premiered works by Nicolaus A. Huber and Kaija Saariaho and worked with composers such as Luciano Berio, Heinz Holliger, Mauricio Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm. As a soloist, she has performed with conductors Bernard Haitink, Hans Vonk, Hartmut Haenchen and Fabio Luisi, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Basel Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio. Last summer saw the release of her latest solo album, entitled "Impromptu," featuring music from François Couperin to Nino Rota.
www.sarahobrien.net

Gabriel Vieira

The Brazilian harpist graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Zurich University of the Arts in 2021 under Sarah O'Brien and is currently continuing his education in the master's program in music education. As a minor, he is specializing in the baroque harp with Arianna Savall Figueras. Gabriel Vieira started playing the harp at the age of 13 as part of a social project. Before moving to Zurich in 2018, he studied in Rio de Janeiro at the University School of Music with Cristina Braga, where he also won the soloist competition. In 2019, he was a finalist at the "Rencontres Internationales de la Harpe" in Moret-sur-Loing, France. The harpist took part in a fall tour of the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra and played as an intern in the Bern Symphony Orchestra last season. Gabriel Vieira loves chamber music and has formed a trio with a flutist and a violist from his college.

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Administrative notes

Cost (per person): CHF 60.-- (free for membership supporter and friend). Discount for students and trainees (only with valid ID): CHF 10.--