It's Alive!!!!

[Don Mannino]

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Wim,
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Besides voicing it up as needed, or refining the regulation (perhaps),
you might consider this . . .
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When I was in music school we had a Mason & Hamlin BB in the recital
hall that was never used because it was dead and dull, lifeless.  I
asked if I could practice on it for a summer, and the faculty agreed.  I
spent 3 to 6 hours a day on it, and at the end of the summer the
technician re-shaped the hammers, regulated and voiced it - and it was
used quite a bit thereafter.  It was mainly a chamber music piano anyway
(there was a reasonably good Steinway D there as well plus an old
clapped out Baldwin SD), but once played in a bit people started using
the BB.
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It really sounds like the action of your D needs work.  Hard to say what
or why, but perhaps the friction isn't what it should be.
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Don Mannino
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-----Original Message-----
From: Wimblees@aol.com [mailto:Wimblees@aol.com]=20
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 1:20 PM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: It's Alive!!!!


Well, actually, it's dead. At least that is what Olga Kern told me last
week. She was here to give a recital. I prepped our new D, and put it in
the middle of the stage. At 6:30 I stopped by to see if there was
anything she needed. She said, "This piano is dead." I said it was only
a year old, and had probably only been played about a dozen times. She
said, it sounded like it. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I
offered her our 14 year D, which was sittting off stage. After playing
just 3 chords, she said she wanted to play the recital on that piano,
but only after warming up on it. I had 15 minutes to tune it before the
doors opened. Unfortunately, by the end of the fist half, there were
several notes that didn't make it.=20
=20
But that is not what I'm here to complain about. Olga was not the first
pianist to complain about the new piano. Last March Misha Dichter had
the same complaint. (but at least he gave me 2 hours to prep the older
piano). My question is, how do I put more "life" into a new piano? As I
said, the piano only comes out of it's hiding place for special
occasions. (No, sun down is not a special occasion here in Alabama,
especially not on Sundays.) Since we got the piano in August of last
year, there have been about 12 performances on it. The piano is voiced,
regulated, etc., so I don't quite understand when a performer says there
is no life in the piano. Not even our piano faculty agrees with that,
although they do think the piano is a little stiffer than the older one.

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Any advice will be greatly appreciated.=20
=20
Wim
Willem Blees, RPT
Piano tuner/technician
School of Music
University of Alabama



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