Albuquerque 1995

[Don_Mannino@yca.ccmail.compuserve.com]

     >>Well, so how was it? Did you all have a good time or what?

     Dennis Johnson<<


     Dennis,

     We are all sworn to secrecy. The tumultuous events of the week cannot
     be expressed openly. . . .

     'Twas a good convention from my mostly exhibit hall view. I couldn't
     break away to attend David Stanwood's class, unfortunately.

     The receptions were great. My center pin / action friction class was
     well attended by mostly intelligent technicians (and one heckler).

     The Steinway concert was interesting, but I enjoyed comparing the 2 Ds
     myself better. They put a Hamburg D next to a New York D, and a Mr.
     Bayless played selections on each. Unfortunately the pianist wanted to
     angle the tails of the pianos away from the audience (I suppose
     because he wanted us to be able to see his fingers - ugh), so the
     treble tone was very weak from out in the seats.  Comparing the pianos
     later didn't reveal this weakness.

     The New York D (I didn't make a note of the number) was one of those
     wonderfully huge sounding pianos. The Hamburg D was cleaner but not as
     big.

     The Fazioli 10 footer was impressive, and beautifully built also. It
     was hard to judge it's tone well in the exhibit hall - it was voiced
     up and quite bright, but seemed to break up and be harsh when played
     hard.

     The Fazioli class taught by Heiner Sanwald had some interesting
     insight into soundboard design and wood selection, romantically
     presented with Scarlatti playing during the slides of the northern
     Italian forests.  They go out into this protected forest (according to
     Heiner, only musical instrument makers are allowed to purchase trees
     from this area) and whack the trees with a big mallet to listen to
     their tone quality.  I am not making this up!

     Heiner is obviously a very intelligent man, and he does know his
     soundboards, so I'll have to take him at his word on this tree
     selection routine.  I suggested to him that maybe Young Chang should
     try this technique - send a few hundred Koreans into the north
     American forests banging on trees full time! Sure wouldn't do the owls
     much good! (BG) ;-)

     Don_Mannino@yca.ccmail.compuserve.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Albuquerque  1995
Author:  INTERNET:johnsond@stolaf.edu at CSERVE
Date:    7/26/95 8:35 AM