Martin,

Not long after I bought my first harp, I was stranded in isolation from all harp-related help in trying to learn it - one of those impulse buys you make when you see something intriguing in the music shop window!!

Anyway, back to the story: Mary O'Hara was just making her way back into performing after retreating from the world following her husband's untimely death. She performed in my local city of Newcastle, Australia so I was compelled to go to her concert. Apart from seeing Harpo Marx playing the harp on the Marx Brothers movies, plus a couple of quick panning shots on some classical concerts shown on TV, I had never seen anyone play the harp.

Your description above aptly describes why I was disappointed:

"That generation was much given to fluttery, vibrato-rich singing backed with soft plucking."

Believe me, it's not a slight on Ms O'Hara's ability at all, but it just wasn't the style of music I prefer.

So thanks for that description. I have been struggling for years to pinpoint why I was not as happy as I had hoped I would be to see Ms O'Hara perform live. I also wasn't sure whether re-launching her career after such a long time might have meant that her playing was a bit rusty, so I tried to be gracious about it.

My favourite harp performers are the direct opposite of your description. The best descriptive word I can find for the Scottish harp duo called Sileas, with Patsy Seddon and Mary McMaster, is raucous. They are brilliant!

So it was just a matter of musical taste interfering with my enjoyment of Mary O'Hara's music.

Helen