Van Cliburn piano war

Joel Rappaport joelr@flash.net
Mon, 09 Jun 1997 15:54:17 -0500


Don and List,

No, for the first time since 1981, Pris and I were not at the Van
Cliburn Competition.  They are "watching their pennies" as the Exec.
Director told me and "could not afford" to bring someone from out of
town to service the Foundation's Steinways (2 American Steinways, 1
Hamburg Steinway).  As a matter of fact, the Foundation's pianos were
not even on stage.  The pianos used were 1 American and 1 Hamburg
provided by Steinway-New York and 1 Yamaha Concert Grand provided by
Yamaha.  I presume that technicians from those companies provided the
service.

We have two Summer Music Festivals to cover this month and our cat is
grateful that we were not gone for the extended amount of time the
Cliburn demands.

Since this is a technical forum, I guess my contribution is that I can't
provide any technical (or artistic) insights into this year's
Competition.

Joel Rappaport
Round Rock, Texas

DMCKECH wrote:
> 
> Now that the Van Cliburn is over, I wonder if anyone knows which company
> won the piano war. (Were you there Joel?) Just curious.
> 
> Congratulations to John Nakamatsu. I just heard his Rocky 3 on NPR. Most
> impressive. It was difficult to tell what piano he was playing on my old
> stereo in the shop, but my guess is Steinway.
> 
> Don McKechnie
> Ithaca College
> dmckech@ithaca.edu


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