Pianist's impression, was : What would Steinway do

[Marcel Carey]

À propos of all this talk,

I've been working at a summer music festival where I've had the pleasure
to work with many pianists from all over the world.

I remember when I was greener, I was very affected by the pianists'
feedback concerning the concert instrument at this place. I guess I was
just looking at ego gratification. Anyway, what I found interesting is
getting opposite feedback from 2 different well know pianists concerning
the same piano. One week the piano should have been discarded, the other
week it was the best Steinway that pianist had played in a long time...
Go figure.

Everything is relative in this world. I know there is no perfect piano.
A particular piano might be loved by a lot of people, but maybe a few
won't like the name on the fallboard.

I think we should be grateful to Steinway and all manufacturers that
gave us all these instruments we can improve in the rebuilding process.
And I think we should open a communication line with all of them to air
our complaints and worries, not to bitch, but for them to stay on their
guards and build the best pianos they can within the present market.

Marcel Carey, RPT
Sherbrooke, QC

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
> [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] De la part de RicB
> Envoyé : 5 mars 2007 14:35
> À : pianotech at ptg.org
> Objet : What would Steinway do
> 
> 
> Aprapo all this talk about pianists attachment reasonable or not with 
> Steinways.
> 
> I had a very interesting experience this evening in preparing 
> a Boston 
> 215 for concert use with an Israeli pianist originally from 
> the Ukrain. 
> She had played on one of our towns Steinways D's (Hamburg) a 
> couple days 
> ago and was compared it to the Universitys CF III.  She did 
> not like the 
> CF III.  As it turns out she just plain did not like Yamahas 
> in general. 
> But she loved the Steinway citing the large dynamic range it allowed 
> for, the subtle nuances of play she could achieve.
> 
> Now I happen to know both of these instruments quite well.  
> The Steinway 
> is very poorly regulated, having been neglected for several 
> years. Nor 
> is it voiced well at all. Very uneven in all registers. The action 
> shifts with too much accompanying noise and hammers are not 
> alligned so 
> many tones do not get the proper effect when the shift pedal 
> is engaged. 
> Damper stop rail is way to high... etc etc etc.  The Yamaha 
> on the other 
> hand is in prime condition, nearly new and is in its best 
> period so far 
> since we bought it nearly 4 years ago now. 
> 
> Now this is a world class pianist we are talking about... so 
> prejudiced 
> or not her opinions about pianos also carry the weight of HER vast 
> experience and critical expertise.  But, like us all... she 
> is also human. 
> 
> It became obvious to me quickly that there was nothing to be 
> gained in 
> confronting her with some of the facts about these two pianos.  
> Besides... the general response picture these two instrument 
> present ARE 
> quite different...even looking through as it were the regulation 
> problems the Steinway has.  How am I to know for sure how much of her 
> reaction is prejudiced based, how much is based on what 
> overall response 
> picture she likes ?
> 
> I've learned through years that pianists often look way past 
> regulation 
> problems that I would, from a pianotechnical perspective gawk at.  As 
> long as they can get good speed and repetition, and the 
> overall response 
> picture they want..... hey the piano is good.  Its difficult 
> at best to 
> know what to do with that fact IMHO. But I certainly have 
> come to know 
> what not to do.  That the world expects a reasonable amount 
> of diplomacy 
> from me is not in the end too much to ask for me thinks.
> 
> We had a very interesting discussion really all in all, and I 
> got a good 
> feel for what she liked musically from pianos, and what she 
> didnt.  She 
> liked the Boston btw... quite a bit really.
> 
> Cheers
> RicB
> 
> 
>