The Two Arabesques were written for piano, but the harp seems like a perfect vehicle for Debussy’s dreamy atmosphere. Ada Sassoli was a popular harpist in her time, though she is now almost forgotten; she made a number of recordings for Victor, and we shall be hearing more of her. This record was made at the end of 1920, and the Victor horn picked up the sound of the harp very well, although the quiet music necessarily lets through a certain amount of surface noise. We were unwilling to reduce the noise further on the usual grounds that it would take too much of the music with it.

From a 1914 Victor catalogue: “This most romantic and picturesque of musical instruments is often considered to be useful only in the accompanying of songs, but should be pre-eminently a solo instrument.

“To make a faithful reproduction of the tones of the harp has long been the ambition of the best recorders in America and Europe, but their labors were in vain until the Victor, after years of experimenting, announced the result of these experiments in a series of beautiful reproductions, by Miss Ada Sassoli, whose artistic playing is familiar to concertgoers. Miss Sassoli’s exquisite tone, her mastery of phrasing and amazing technique are perfectly recorded.”