Pianist Karl Ulrich Schnabel Dies

[John Musselwhite]

At 03:38 PM 8/28/01 -0400, Bill wrote:

>>finest.  He was, however, extremely demanding when it came to pedal
>>regulation, as he used extremely fine gradations of sustain pedal for
>>coloration.
>
>Thanks for your reply.  I was wondering if anyone from this List ever knew or
>worked for him.  Your comment about pedal regulation is interesting too.
>It's often overlooked and many people just "tromp" on them rather than using
>them with any degree of sensitivity or gradation.

Just yesterday I had another client who complained that her daughter (a 
university-level performer) used the pedal too much. Despite having taken 
10 years of piano on a beautiful U-3 Yamaha the mom was constantly 
reminding her that it's not an off/on switch! It's rather sad that teachers 
let students get away with that, but from what I hear it's not uncommon. 
Some of the teachers do it too.

I've mentioned this before, but around here somewhere I have the rider from 
when I tuned for Chick Corea and Gary Burton (on vibrophone). It was one of 
the most demanding riders I'd seen and not only dealt with the tuning of 
the two instruments together, but included an entire paragraph on how Mr. 
Corea requires his pedals to be adjusted. Fortunately, that's the way I 
keep them on the 1978 D he chose.

I did find out one interesting thing about Chick Corea while we were 
discussing his requirements at the piano. As he was writing down the serial 
number of the D that he picked (the other one being an almost all-original 
1956 D) he told me that he's recorded the serial numbers of every piano 
he's played in concert and practically every one he's ever played. I 
suspect he also writes down his impressions of each instrument too. 
Wouldn't *that* be something to read!

                 John

John Musselwhite, RPT    -     Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.musselwhite.com  http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
mailto: john@musselwhite.com    http://www.mp3.com/fatbottom