Here, Rebekka Frömling (one of the most prominent soloists in Germany) brings us a range of the harp repertoire from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. The painting mentioned in the title—Strings & Webs—doesn’t refer to the internet but to the web woven by a spider, even featuring music from the album Spider’s Web by Paul Patterson (2013). The work plays around with how you can use music to describe four highly venomous spiders, through a harp accompanied by a string quartet. Its language, contemporary without trying to be avant-garde, borrows much from Stravinsky and Bartók, Hindemith and sometimes Gershwin. In turn, Hindemith’s Sonata contains a small singularity because the last movement is embellished with a short poem in German—of course recited in the present recording. Carl Philip Emanuel Bach’s Sonata, initially conceived for piano accordion, was adapted for harp by the famous Welsh virtuoso Osian Ellis, a close relation of Britten. Finally, Louis Spohr’s Fantasia reminds the listener that the composer married one of Europe’s most famous harpist in the early 1800s, so it’s quite natural that he wrote pieces for her, not to mention an expert in writing for her instrument. © SM/Qobuz