For several years now, and thanks to the collaboration with flutist Wim Brabants, I have had the opportunity to research and play the often unknown but oh so beautiful music from 1770 to 1810 on beautiful instruments.

The Louis XVI style single-action pedal harp was made in Paris between the 1760s and 1820s. It quickly became a fashionable and much loved instrument played by ladies of the French aristocracy such as Madame de Pompadour, Marie-Antoinette and Empress Joséphine.

The string tension of the single-action pedal harp is lower than that of the modern harp, which allows for very virtuoso playing. The silvery sound is more transparent and has a brilliant resonance.

Many works for solo harp and harp in combination with other instruments were written during this period (late Classicism and early Romanticism), not only by well-known harpists such as Johann Baptist Krumpholtz (1742-1790) and François Joseph Naderman (1781-1835), but also by well-known composers such as Louis Spohr (1784-1859) and Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812), both of whose husbands were talented harpists.

The Erard harp by Aurélie Viegas belonged to Salvator Callault (1791-1839), harpist at the Paris Opera and was sold in 1819

built. Tuning 430Hz

An even older historical instrument is her Holtzman harp from about 1780. Tuning 415Hz

On both of these harps I can give a solo recital as well as a lecture about this fascinating period or play atmospheric background music.