I listen to most of my music on the car radio. If I can't bear the performer or the player, I switch it off, which means I don't hear quite a lot. This morning on my way home from the farm it was the BBC's "CD Review" and they were playing Albeniz. I love Albeniz and immediately I knew I would not switch off. The playing was fine and the recording excellent, but what increasingly struck me was the piano. As I listened I went through a list in my head of the pianos one generally hears and somehow the sound did not fit any of them. It was the sound a really good concert piano should make -- pure and clear in all registers with plenty of power and a very good balance between registers. It was not only the quality of the bass and high treble that excluded all the pianos I had thought of but also that it had "bones" -- the attack and the line of initial decay were such as one rarely hears in a modern concert piano. I pricked up my ears at the end of the performance, determined to get this record, and to discover what the piano was. Wonder of wonders! the announcer not only gave the necessary details but made a special mention of the make of the piano. I won't tell you what the piano was, but you can hear bits of Artur Pizaro's disk of Albeniz' Iberia and Granados' Goyescas <http://www.linnrecords.com/review-isaac-albeniz-enrique-granados-iberia-goyescas-international-record-review-artur-pizarro-ckd-355.aspx> on iTunes. I'd be interested to hear other people's impressions of this piano. JD
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