The solo harp can seduce, inspire and astonish, and never more so than in music by French composers. Emmanuel Ceysson, multiple prize-winning soloist and principal harp of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, is determined to sweep away all the clichés of the instrument’s image.

Reviews praise his ‘jubilant spirit’ (NY Concert Review), while comparing him and his harp to ‘a human body and an instrument merged into one’ (Berlin Tagesspiegel). In this all-French programme, Ceysson includes solo versions of two beloved masterpieces involving the harp. Charles Debussy’s elegant and sensual Danse sacrée et danse profane (Sacred and Profane Dances) contrasts with Maurice Ravel’s airily freespirited Introduction and Allegro.

Alongside them, Ceysson casts fresh light on works by some of their lesser-known contemporaries, including Henriette Renié, André Caplet, Marius Constant and Marcel Tournier.