First time I saw them I thought at first glance meh pretty dry. Then I listened all the way through and to some others. Wow, when you consider they’re often marching backwards, playing a tough snare part and throwing sticks all over, truly one of a kind. Amazing!
Harpists and flutists are an orchestrator’s dream. They are so incredibly proficient that you can basically write something as difficult as you can imagine, and they’ll just execute perfectly. Ravel was brilliant at exploiting musicians’ technical prowess in general, but damn he knew how to write for harp.
