The name Wilhelm Heinrich Baethmann stands for the highly developed standard of instrument making which had been achieved in the 18th century in Northern Germany. Baethmann belongs directly to the Vater family dynasty, which held a leading position in building organs, harpsichords, spinets, and clavichords for several generations in the area of Hannover. Baethmann married a daughter of Christian Vater the younger in 1782 and continued the long and successful tradition of the Vater family as instrument makers.

The NEUPERT copy is based on the only remaining clavichord of Baethmann, an unfretted instrument of five octaves, built in 1799, which is now in Goethe‘s house at Frankfurt. It belonged once to Charlotte Buff, (her married name was Kestner), for whom Johann Wolfgang Goethe created an unfading memorial in his book „The sorrows of young Werther“.

In copying the clavichord of Baethmann, NEUPERT offers an instrument which, thanks to its history, full sound and capabilities in modulation, represents a true testimony to the high art of clavichord building in the
„Age of Sentimentalism“.

Technical details:

• keyboard compass: F₁ - f³  (5 octaves)
• unfretted, two strings per note, brass strings
• length: 176 cm (5‘9“), width: 53 cm (1‘9“), net weight: 52 kg (115 lbs)

Additional equipment:

• Covers and benches matching the instrument