Greetings,
This is my first post. I'm hoping you'll have some ideas about the
problem below.
Last spring I acquired a recording by Heather Harper of a recitative
and aria from The Seasons. It comprises No. 17 and the recitative that
precedes it, sung in English. If you point your browser to
http://www.ampexguy.com/horn/vocal.recs.html
and scroll down a little you'll be able to read everything I know
about the discs, see photographs of "interesting" writing on the discs
and jackets, and even listen to it. The link is to a 16 bit, 44.1 KHz
(i.e., CD quality) WAV file. It will take a few minutes to download
even with a fast Internet connection. The performance is superb (i.e.,
just another day at the office for HH).
The recording is on one side each of ten- and twelve inch
instantaneous recording blanks. The ten inch disc holds the
recitative; the twelve inch disc contains the aria.
I have totally struck out in attempting to contact Harper to find out
what she remembers about this recording. I can't find an address for a
manager. (Maybe, at 88 and long retired, she thinks she doesn't need
one anymore.) Her last teaching gig was at the Royal College of Music.
They have no contact information at all for her. Her alma mater,
Trinity College of Music (now Trinity-Laban) did have an outdated
address; the letter they kindly sent to that address came back
undeliverable. :-(
At both the RCM and Trinity I contacted the library, figuring that was
my best bet for getting help.
So does anyone know how to contact Harper, or anyone who might, or
have any additional ideas about this? My question is could Ms. Harper
please tell me the name of the pianist, circumstances, date, and
location of the recording? I'm perfectly happy with someone relaying
the questions to HH and her reply to me; I don't particularly need to
be in touch with her myself.
I realize I could count on the fingers of both hands with ten fingers
left over the people other than me who care anything at all about
this. However, she was a major artist, and it seems to me that I
should try to find out what she remembers about this, and not wait
until she's performing in that great opera house in the sky before
getting serious about it (as I have done in too many other cases).
Thanks for any counsel you can give.
Howard Sanner
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