Mikhail Pletnev

[Richard Brekne]

I doubt seriously I will be meeting the Mæstro any time soon :)... this 
is another situation where somebody heard about something the Mæstro 
does to make the touch artificially lighter.  One response I got on CAUT 
makes kind of sense and is a real possibility.  A 1-2 mm thick felt 
piece is temporarily inserted under the keys on the key rest felt.  
Essentially simply takes care of the first 1mm or so of key dip. 
Stopping and thinking about this... you move the jack angle slightly 
in... perhaps a tad lowering of the starting ratio there... you shorten 
the key dip and blow... which could by some pianists feasibly be 
experienced as a lightening of touchweight...

We are not after a quiter sound per se... as in the una corda 
suggestions here... tho I get where you two are coming from... nice 
thinking really.  More a combination of an overall sensation of a 
lighter touch... lighter response picture.... as in kind of simulating 
older piano touch styles.

Another idea,... probably less likely as an answer to what the Mæstro 
does... is running 0.3 mm thick shimming paper stripes just back of the 
balance rail pins.  This would definitely lighten the touchweight 
because the ratio will be lowered. Still... tho its quick and dirty... 
and easily reversable... I gotta wonder if a pianist would lift the top 
action, remove all the keys.. and insert these strips.  Besides they 
arent felt and thats reportedly what he uses.

Thanks for the good thoughts.  I'm going to try the restfelt extender 
idea in the next few days on a couple pianists around here to see what 
they think.

Cheers
RicB


    Your comment jogs a dormant brain cell: perhaps this "strip of felt"
    adjustment is inserted at the action return block to beef up the
    felt very
    slightly, to achieve a continual slight una chorda effect. Or even
    between
    the bass cheek block & keyframe, if the "fix" is particularly quick &
    dirty.Obviously,a properly voiced instrument shouldn't require that
    kind of "hack", so I
    don't think Ric needs to worry about it (and he can certainly ask
    about it
    Maestro Pletnev when he sees him -- obviously I'm just guessing!).
    Patrick

    On Jan 8, 2008 2:27 PM, Brad Lehman <bpl at umich.edu> wrote: