In a fortepiano recital here the other night, the room heated up quickly just prior to and during the concert. It was already 80 degrees (!) by the beginning, and heated up more as the audience came in. The piano had had plenty of tuning attention before hand and was as solid as possible. But when I checked the piano at intermission, unisons were generally fine, but all the bass octaves which involved brass wire were remarkably expanded (flat 2 or 3 beats) and I had to scramble to attempt to bring as many up as time (and the crowd noise) would allow. The second half was better because (I suppose) the temperature topped out and leveled off. the fans were even off - it was ugly, a full house in a small hall. My organ builder/technician friend Hal Gober mentions the "coefficient of thermal expansion" of the differing metals involved here (brass in the bass and iron in the mid and treble). Is that in fact why this happened - are they that different? I don't know my metallurgy very well. Just curious if anyone out there has the technical knowledge to verify this. Yet one more rude reminder (as if I needed any more) about how sensitive and temperamental fortepianos can be. Allen Wright Oberlin College
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