Una Corda Adjustments and Christian Zimmermann

[Horace Greeley]

David, Cy,

At 07:47 PM 1/4/2005, you wrote:
>A good selling point,

Yes...but, not necessarily supportable in practice...pufferey is part of 
advertising.

>  but many pianists claim that practicing on a less
>than optimized (at least in terms of weight) piano makes going to a
>better one easier and not vice versa.

This is strongly born out in my own experience.  I can immediately think of 
at least two pianists who hold variations of this view.  In one case, the 
person, throughout their undergraduate and graduate careers, consistently 
chose to practice on different instruments every day.  At this point, they 
can (and have) performed on instruments that would have left most other 
pianists crying quietly in the corner.  In the other case, they knowingly 
will not allow the NY hammers on their NY S&S instruments to even be 
shaped, let alone hardened on the theory (again, born out by many years of 
a successful concert career) that, if they can get sound out of those big, 
marshmallow-y things, they can play anything.

To bring this thread back around a bit, pianists are, by and large, pretty 
darned spoiled.  Yes, they are at the mercy of whatever instrument they 
confront on the stage or in their studio (and, yes, this leads to things 
like George Winston's contract rider).  At the same time, if the instrument 
is anywhere near being reasonably well regulated, tuned and voiced, much 
more is at stake in their own ability (or, perhaps, lack of it) than in the 
perceived limitations of the piano.  The best ones know this 
intimately.  The worst ones never figure it out.  And, we spend most of our 
time and energy dealing with the ones in the middle who are convinced that 
"if only the technician/piano were a little different...blahblahblah...".

Unfortunately, many brands of piano can "work" (at some level or other) 
even when pretty woefully set up and poorly maintained, as a casual 
listening at most recital and concert halls will quickly disclose.  I do 
not necessarily fault other technicians in this.  Many, perhaps even most 
times, there is simply insufficient time available (even if there is 
budget) to properly maintain an instrument.

It's all a moving target...four dimensions, at least; and, no truly "right" 
answer to be found.  So, one might as well celebrate the diversity; and be 
thankful that it doesn't all sound like mush.

Best.

Horace



>David Love
>davidlovepianos@comcast.net
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
>Behalf Of Cy Shuster
>Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:26 PM
>To: Pianotech
>Subject: Re: Una Corda Adjustments and Christian Zimmermann
>
>Stanwood says that practicing on pianos optimized with his system make
>it
>easier to adjust to lesser instruments.  See #4:
>http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/faq.htm
>
>--Cy Shuster--
>Bluefield, WV
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Horace Greeley" <hgreeley@stanford.edu>
>To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 5:48 PM
>Subject: RE: Una Corda Adjustments and Christian Zimmermann
>
>
> >....here are these young kids, with the skeletal and muscular systems
>still
> >very much in quick development, doing (in that setting) a fair amount
>of
> >practice (which is to say, developing the muscle-memory that comes from
>
> >repetition in practice) on an instrument which gave them an ungrounded
> >sense of accomplishment and ability.  This is not to say that there
>were
> >not some exceptionally talented people playing.  It is to say that one
> >wonders how these folks might, if afforded such actions for protracted
> >periods of time (for, say, a number of years), adjust when the get to
>the
> >more "real" world, and have to play on whatever is presented to them...
>
>
>
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