artist's touch

[Keith Roberts]

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Interesting topic. I've played all my life and just recently have been =
able to play actions of different geometries. The S&S B with all new =
keys didn't call for any lead in the keys from about C5 to C6. The =
comment was (by my mentor) that he didn't like the feel of the keys in =
that octave, that they tended to freewheel and sure enough those keys =
seemed to fly up as you did a riff across those keys.=20
Today I played the L and the D for a good half an hour. All =
new/restored. The L with 60 grams of down weight played like a dream. I =
could play soft and it sang or I could over power it without a great =
amount of effort. It is leveraged on the positive side for the weight =
it's throwing and it still had a feel of something to push against. I =
liked it. Atamian probably would have liked it better than that Baldwin. =
I moved right over to the D and immediately thought it was heavier. It =
has 52 grams of down weight. As I played it I realized I was not working =
quite as hard as on the L and the heaviness was in the total mass of the =
system and gave the action the feeling of pushing against something. I =
think the reason I wasn't working as hard was because the sound the D =
made was so much bigger I didn't try to play as hard. I liked it too. It =
seemed much more deliberate. I'll have to play it with speed/repetition =
in mind as well as inertia/mass resistance. The knuckle placement might =
move. The original placement was duplicated at 15 1/2 mm. Should be fun =
to compare the before and after feels.=20
Of course a musician like Atamian is like a highly trained athlete. Take =
a finely built bicycle and gear it the way we like it and Lance =
Armstrong will only use the top three gears. If that. He would hate it.
Keith R
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Ed Carwithen=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 2:23 PM
  Subject: artist's touch


  The Oregon East Symphony performed Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto =
this past weekend with Dickran Atamian at the piano.  He was VERY =
unhappy with the piano.  Fortunately for me, another technician was the =
tuner for this instrument.  He complained that there was no "resistance" =
to the action.  Everything was way too limber.  In soft passages he had =
trouble controlling the lightness of his playing because the tone =
sounded almost before he was ready for it.  In loud passages (and there =
was PLENTY of loud), there was nothing to push against.

  He was also unhappy with the way that the ivories kept "drying up."  =
He had some kind of lotion in a sort of sachet that he kept gripping =
with his hand, and would then run his hands up and down the keyboard to =
get the keys more slick.

   I should mention that the piano is an 9' Baldwin.  It has been =
restrung several years past, but while not new, it is in pretty fair =
condition.  It is not new, but it is kept up, and regularly serviced by =
a very fine RPT in our area.  I don't think that there was any =
unhappiness about the work of the tech, only the condition of the piano.

    I should also mention that Atamian plays at or beyond the threshold =
of pain for volume a great deal of the time.  I am amazed that there =
were no strings or hammers broken.  He certainly did his best to pound =
the double H out of it. =20

    He didn't seem to have any complaint about the tuning itself, just =
the "freeness" of the action.  How the piano held it's tuning through =
his banging is a major miracle.  He did tell all and sundry that the =
piano was a "piece of junk," and the management should get rid of it =
rather than having any professional try to make music on it.

    His performance was of the highest caliber, and he deserved the =
standing O that he got.  In rehearsal and in performance it was obvious =
that he is highly gifted and dedicated, as well as knowledgeable to the =
point of obsession about the Tchaikovsky concerto.  It is just that his =
concerns about the piano were curious to me.

    What steps could a tech make to put more resistance in the piano?  =
Especially between Friday night and Saturday afternoon?  Is this a =
common complaint with artists?  How about the business with the keys =
being dry.  I thought that artists wished the keys to be clean and dry =
so their fingers didn't slide.  That is the opposite of what he wanted.

  Has anyone had experience tuning for Mr. Atamian, and how was it?

  Inquiring minds want to know.

  Ed Carwithen
  John Day, OR

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