Oskar Werner

Rhapsody in Gypsy Style

The composer's inspiration to write this piece was Edouard Manet's painting called The Spanish Dancers and the performance of a so-called gypsy ensemble consisting of the instruments violin, clarinet and cymbalom. These are the instruments he tries to imitate in his piece. Improvised elements with unexpected changes of mood are meant to resemble Manet's spontaneous act of painting. Oskar Werner (born in Hamburg in 1930) played the harp in various orchestras; the last before his retirement in 1995 was the Braunschweig State Orchestra where he was first solo harpist. Furthermore, he also taught piano and harp at the Municipal School of Music in Braunschweig. Also available at Zimmermann's: Oskar Werner: Four solo pieces for harp (ZZM 29090).