Question

Jon Page jonpage@mediaone.net
Tue Oct 3 19:23 MDT 2000


Case in point: This past weekend I rented a grand for a wedding reception
which had been thru previous rentals.This time a jack had broken in the
octave below middle C.

Granted the parts were 1907 vintage and I did forget to reinforce them with 
CA but the
Father of the Bride did mention that 'he really played it', emphasizing his 
exuberance
for the fortisimo.  However it is not a new occurrence where force is 
utilized over finesse.

I have heard plenty of bangers in my day but the two outstanding players in 
the finesse
department were Rudolph Fercushny (sp) and Ellis Larkins.  I could listen 
to these guys all day.

There is one guy here who no one wants to follow in a multi-performer concert.
He'll turn anything into toothpicks  :-)

On a different note, today was a perfect day weather-wise; I actually took 
a break to
go out and get the mail. . .

Indian Summer here is great,

Jon Page

At 03:44 PM 10/03/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>Having been involved with piano performance from both sides of the fence (i.e.
>pianist and technician) - and these remarks apply equally to both 
>historical and
>modern pianos - it is ultimately the responsibility of the pianist to adapt as
>required to meet the characteristics of whatever instrument is presented. 
>There
>is no excuse for banging fff with rough and ugly tone. While many pianists can
>make some pianos sound good, it is possible to make any piano sound bad, 
>and, by
>recognizing its limitations, the true artist is capable of making any piano
>sound good. In my experience there is no shortage of spoiled-brat un-thinking
>superstar pianists, however there is a serious shortage of true artists. Go
>think.
>
>Stephen
>
>Stephen Birkett Fortepianos
>464 Winchester Drive
>Waterloo, Ontario
>Canada N2T 1K5
>tel:519-885-2228
>mailto: birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca

Jon Page,   piano technician
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.
mailto:jonpage@mediaone.net
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