In Classic NL’s “On the Music Stand” series, Danielle Riegel reflects on her years as a concert harpist, the development of her lay-down concerts and the connection to her new album, Einaudi on Harp – Oltremare (Beyond the Sea).
Read the English translation below.
On the Music Stand
Every month, a guest writer takes you into the world of classical music. This month: Danielle Riegel on lay-down concerts.
After more than thirty-five years as a concert harpist, including sixteen years as principal harpist in a symphony orchestra, I know the classical concert hall from the inside. I still love that world, but over the years I have become increasingly curious about what happens when we change not only what we play, but also how we listen.
That is how my lay-down concerts came about: concerts where the audience doesn’t sit in rows of chairs, but lies down comfortably, can close their eyes and experience the music without visual distraction. It may sound like a small difference, but for me it completely changes the way people listen. Attention turns inward, allowing the music to enter more deeply and creating more space for feeling and imagination.
What continues to move me is what people tell me afterwards. They often experience the music more intensely and notice details they might otherwise have missed. Some say they completely lost their sense of time; others are unexpectedly deeply touched by a particular piece or notice how their body relaxes while listening. I don’t see it as a replacement for the traditional concert — I still perform those concerts with great love — but as another form alongside it. Especially in a time when our attention is constantly being demanded, I find it meaningful to create an environment in which, for an hour, you don’t have to be anywhere else but with the music.
This search for a more intimate, direct way of listening also plays an important role in my new album, Einaudi on Harp – Oltremare (Beyond the Sea). For the album, I deliberately chose my Dusty Strings harp, whose warm, direct sound gives Einaudi’s music a very distinctive character for me. His music moves between worlds: rooted in the classical tradition, yet influenced by music that reaches much further. Perhaps that is also what appeals to me in both this album and the lay-down concerts. Classical music does not need to let go of its history in order to find new forms. Sometimes, simply changing the way we listen creates space to rediscover familiar music.
Danielle Riegel is a Dutch-French harpist with an international career spanning more than three decades, including fifteen years as principal harpist with the Residentie Orkest – The Hague Philharmonic. As a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral harpist, her musical world ranges from Baroque and classical repertoire to French Impressionism, contemporary and neoclassical music, improvisation and crossover. Her 2026 album, Einaudi on Harp – Oltremare (Beyond the Sea), is released internationally by Challenge Records International on 16 October.
Originally published in Dutch by Classic NL.