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A tug at the heartstrings

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How incongruous it was to find Welsh harpist Ieuan Jones plucking away in the ugliness of the City Hall Theatre. It is a grim rehearsal space, never mind performance area, for any music, let alone something so melodic and graceful.

Jones, who tours to some of the world's most prestigious festivals for much of the year, has also appeared in posh drawing rooms: he has played in Windsor Castle for the Queen Mother, and for years in his early days he appeared regularly in the House of Commons and Britain's stately homes.

But if there is nothing intimate or charming about this week's setting, there is always the music, clear, resonant waves of it which seem at odds with such a bulky, almost aggressive instrument.

Nothing like a bit of conflict, though, to make you perfectly suited for the House of Commons. Jones was the only musician to be employed there on a regular basis. He was spotted by the parliamentary catering hierarchy in a London hotel in 1982. They were so determined to book him for the visitors' grill, the Churchill Room, they put it to the House.

Not everyone was a fan. 'Enoch Powell would mutter, 'It's not that bloody harp again!' '. Other MPs kept asking him for the wine list until he gave up wearing a dinner jacket.

Being regularly asked to play Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is a thing of the past for the touring virtuoso. His City Hall concert tonight, with the Hong Kong String Quarter, includes works by Bax, Handel, Golubev, Gallon and Caplet.

And ditch tea-room images of classical, floral ladies with flowing tresses on soft German harps. Jones' 60-kilogram Italian harp - the precious, inlaid harps stay home - which has just been lugged around on open trucks through Bangkok's humidity, requires very physical playing with its high tension.

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