Last Friday Siebe organized us a visit to Rijswijk (mmm, unfortunately now that I don’t live beside anymore), where we were invited to see Frank Venema’s small collection of modern harpsichords. In the main living-room we found:

• Société Anonyme Pleyel (Paris, 1939): “Gran Modèle de Concert”, designed in 1912 in cooperation with Wanda Landowska

• J.C. Neupert GmbH & Ko KG (Bamberg, 1968): Model “Bach”, designed in 1932

• Th.R.C. Goff & J.C. Cobby (London, 1969)

Beside we could see another single keyboard Neupert, a square piano and a copy of a Dulcken (Antwerp, 1745) by G.C. Klop (Garderen, 1978).

I don’t think any of us has thought about ordering such instruments, but it was really interesting to play with the sounds that inspired Poulenc and Falla, and the registration possibilities of the pedals!

more pictures