[CAUT] Appropriate Piano for Small Recital Hall

[Don Mannino]

In my opinion, it is always best to have a concert grand for a recital
space, no matter how small.

A well set up concert grand will have the control necessary to not
overpower the room.  If voiced and regulated appropriately, the full
tone will give performers a much wider palette of sound to work with,
and that range of tone from ppp to fff across the scale is what makes
the pianist happy!

I have serviced many concert grands in peoples living rooms, and they
were wonderful when voiced appropriately.

Don Mannino

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Paul Milesi, RPT
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 8:53 AM
To: PTG CAUT List
Subject: [CAUT] Appropriate Piano for Small Recital Hall

I would appreciate some opinions/input regarding preferred piano size
for a small recital hall in our music department.

The hall has a wooden stage, wooden walls with soundproofing material
behind them, 110 upholstered seats, a tile floor slanted toward the
stage (I believe there's a name for that?), and a short drapery behind
the middle portion of the stage.  Overall, the room is very "dry" rather
than "wet"
sound-wise.

This recital hall is the only performance space located within our small
music department.  We do have access to other spaces around campus, but
they and their pianos are not within our control.  This small hall is
our primary recital space, and currently has a 15-year-old Yamaha C5
(6'6") as a recital piano.

The Yamaha is wearing down a little, and we might have the opportunity
to reclaim a 1970 Steinway D from another venue that actually belongs to
the Department of Music.  I put new hammers, shanks & flanges last year,
but it still needs a lot of work to really be a recital instrument (too
much gospel music over the years).  Big issue is of course budget, but I
feel if we don't at leat try to reclaim the D now, it will be lost to us
as a recondition-able, rather than rebuild-able, instrument.  In other
words, I want to save it from further abuse in the Chapel, and provide
them with a more suitable piano in terms of their available storage
space (small) and uses.  The likelihood of the Department acquiring
another concert quality piano in my lifetime are virtually non-existent,
as I see it.  The C5 is currently our ONLY performance piano.

So...what are your thoughts on a D (or any other 9'footer, for that
matter) in this hall?  I think if voiced to the hall (no lacquer applied
to the new hammers yet), it would be a wonderful piano -- and world's
apart from the C5 (which is still a nice instrument) -- for student and
faculty recitals.
This assumes I can do sufficiently successful reconditioning (several
pulley keys, balance rail mortises bushed correctly (big mortises from
glisses), etc.).  Some faculty have thought this piano would be "too
big, too much sound."

Thanks for sharing your expertise and experience.  I've already gone out
on a limb for this.  Now I'm having second thoughts, second-guessing
myself, so I'm anxious to hear what you think.  :)
--
Paul Milesi, RPT
Staff Piano Technician
Howard University Department of Music
Washington, DC