The City of Nice is hosting an exhibition of pianos, harpsichords, clavichords, and organs of exceptional craftsmanship from March 31, 2012, to October 29, 2012, at the Palais Lascaris. The exhibition features pieces from the pianistic section of the Gaveau-Érard-Pleyel Collection (deposited at the Palais Lascaris by the AXA Group in 2009), from the renowned collection of the Association Ad Libitum (deposited in 2011), and from several recent donations to the museum.
Among the highlights of the exhibition are the harpsichord by Jean-Marie Dedeban (Paris, c. 1770) and the harpsichord-shaped piano by Sébastien Érard (Paris, 1795), the oldest playable example of this model.
Other pianos by Walter, Schätzel, Pleyel, Boisselot, and Bechstein will be used in a concert series starting the evening of the opening at 8:30 PM at the Chapelle de la Miséricorde, with a concert “Around J.-S. Bach” by the Ensemble Baroque de Nice, featuring Lucile Boulanger on viola da gamba and Arnaud de Pasquale on Pierre Sibieude’s harpsichord (1977).
