Have a great day, Frank!

Thanks for the pics!

As promised: Here's some exclusive video footage of our tour of the WDR historical piano collection in Cologne on Tuesday. Frank was jamming away on an original piano from 1678!

Cheers,

- Jan

per Strings & Wood: Have a great day, Frank

+1

Cathy

As promised I will slowly post more pictures and stories (as time allows).
They will not always be in order, but I'll try to add captions.

Tour members enjoying the piano room in the WDR building.



Our First Tour Bus (we are on our third now, but will keep it the rest of the tour).


One of the organs in the Cathedral in Cologne.
The Church was started in the 1300s and not finished until the 1800's


Another Organ in the Cathedral



Locks on the wall of a bridge near the church in Cologne.
Lovers buy the locks and often add their names and the date.
They lock it on the fence and throw the key in the river.



Guenter our feerless leader (guide). We know now why they consider him the best in the business. His knowledge is amazing, and he takes care of every detail. Standing in front of one of our hotels, with our new bus.



View from the bus at 120 KM per hour



Schloss Lerbach Castle where Robin Plays

More shots from BritishJim (these are from today, June 10)
Mostly of our wonderful tour of Bluthner conducted by Dr. Christian Bluthner himself.

o my ...

Bach and organs.. i am drooling.

I love this... I wish I was going too... ^_^

Wow!!! Just wow!!! Hope you all continue to have a great time!!! Special greetings to Frank and LilyLady!!! I can't wait till your return with stories to tell!!!

Fantastic!!!

Thanks Robin! The pleasure was all mine. I'm trying to get the group a special tour of the Virtual Conductor in Vienna. In any case, it's in the House Of Music Vienna which is in spitting distance from the Stephansdom. Check it out if you get a chance and have the unique experience of the Vienna Philharmonic telling you what a lousy conductor you are, in broad Viennese (with subtitles).

Past halfway through your new book!

BTW I got a Roland V-Piano last week, and it's pretty amazing. Much closer to the real thing than any other DP I've tried. Check it out next time you're in a music store. I kicked off a thread about my hands-on comparison to the competition here.

Best,

- Jan

The virtual conductor is pretty cool, but unfortunately there is always a crowd waiting to use it so I have never been able to try. I like the way the orchestra complains if you are too terrible at conducting. The main collection is super, with personal possessions on display from many of the famous composers. The museum is organized by periods and composers. There are quite a few interactive displays.

Again, many more pictures to follow, but a few new ones for now.
First, another picture from Leipzig just because we liked this fountain...


We are in Bayreuth Germany now, home of Steingraeber & Sohne.
Yet another beautiful German town filled with wonderful old homes and shops.

We stopped first at the Wagner Opera House, then on to Steingraeber & Sohne where Udo Steingraeber himself came out to meet our bus.

First we had lunch in the Biastro owned by Steingreaber (the food was wonderful), then we toured the showroom, factory, and concert hall. Udo conducted the tour entertaining everyone with his enthusiasm and knowledge.

I will only post a few pictures from Steingraeber right now because they have asked to have a quick first look before we post. I've chosen primarily outside shots and the concert hall because I know those are ok. Before you ask, no they did not limit us in any way. We were allowed to take as many pictures as we want. Which means many more will be posted as we get a chance.

Bayreuth, Germany


Steingraeber & Sohne, Bayreuth Germany





Steingraeber & Sohne Factory



I'm not sure what Kathy did, but Udo is definitely pointing at her...


The Concert Hall at Steingraeber

Hi BeeLady,

Thanks.
I'm having a great time as is Kathy, and I'm glad I get to share it with my sister and her husband as well.

LilyLady seems to be enjoying herself as well.

BTW, turns out we're going to do two tour groups at Mason & Hamlin in October. Should we still be talking about organizing a forums party up your way before we head to the Cape?

Even if not, would you like to join us on the Cape?

All the Best,

Frank & Kathy

From BritishJim...



Steingraeber & Sohne - Udo Steingraeber Toasts our Group...


Concert Artist Lisa Plays for Us...

truly enjoying all the beautiful pics! very happy for all who were able to join in on such a wonderful experience.

Today (Sunday) was Bayreuth and Nuremberg.

In Nuremberg they have the most incredible museum, much of it housed in an 800 year old Monestary.

I've never seen so many historic pianos (and other instruments) in one place. Plus they had entire wings with religious artifacts, others with clothing, or weapons, or art, or ... You'd need two full days to see it all.

And they have a Janko piano. I've been looking for a real live Janko keyboard for 40 years. I even got to play it (when nobody from the musuem was looking :-)

Again, pictures from BritishJim first, then a few from me.
















Other Pictures

Here On Facebook

Thanks so much Frank for all the pictures and info on your trip, I've been "traveling" with all of you - all of you have seen so much. Wish I could be with you.

Have a safe trip back home.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

I found out they had a piano in a conference room at the hotel in Nurumberg, so of course at the end of the day a group of us went up to the conference room and played piano :-)



Next day (today, Monday) we headed for Munich.



We stopped at the BMW headquarters.



First building we walked into, what did we find?
A steinway Grand Piano (oh, and they had some cars too).
It was funny to watch because we all immediately gravitated to the piano. I asked about playing, and got permission, even got a hardy round of applause from the car lovers in the room.



Easy to spot our group, they are the ones looking at the piano not the cars:-)
I'm the guy in the orange shirt playing the piano.





And a bit of downtown Munich


Tomorrow we will walk around Munich and then head for Salzburg, Austria.

Having lots of fun, many more pictures coming.

They have a cooperation with Steinway Hamburg, Luxury cars (series seven), and luxury pianos. The interieur of the cars gets some black shiny Steinway polyester parts et cetera. For some additional Euros of course.

..and at the end of the cooperation, who might get the Steinway grand..?..

When being in Munich, do as the Munich people do. (No, they don't enter the Hofbrauhaus..Tourists only..) They enter, visit the Deutsches Museum, on Isar island. One of the best musical instruments departments allover the world.

(..I remember one afternoon, being allowed to play carefully, shyly, with full respect to the age of the instruments, on every harpsichord, clavichord, hammer grand et cetera.. <dream>... as times go bye.. now no longer possible in times of vandalism etc.)

Never again in my life a Mozart sonatina C major touched my heart like this old hammer grand did..

Thank you all for the wonderful pics and comments.

Frank...did you run in to any Gloos while in Munich. Great, great grandfather Anthony came to the US in the mid 1800s. Don't think he brought a piano with him.

A memorable time to say the least for all of the group!
Jeremy & Linda

More picts from BritishJim

These are from June 13.









Me playing the Steinway in the BMW display...




Our guide Gunter wearing traditional Bavarian outfit (he lives in Munich).

Hi guys,

the House Of Music came through: I talked to Simon, their director, and although he's out of town he offered to have Helmut, his assistant, give you a special tour of the Virtual Conductor in the House Of Music in Vienna on Thursday - and he'll get you a special deal on the entrance fee too. Günter already has the details. Have fun!

- Jan

Hi Jan,

Thanks so much for arranging this for us.
We're looking forward to our visit, wish you could be with us.

The photos are just fantastic. Makes me realize how happy I am to live here.

Good for you Jan, for scoring that visit to House of Music!

PS: Isn't Munich a lovely city? I do hope to see a photo of someone (Frank?) with one of those giant beers! I did a program there last fall and just loved the city—the food was great.

And tell Günther he looks smashing in his traditional garb.

Loving this thread and the pictures!


Dunno about anyone else, but what I'd be most interested in is, who's who! Not in each and every picture, and I know you're already done it for a couple of them.....but I'd love to know more about who's who!

And BTW.....I guess since these are Steinways, and it's Hamburg.....these are all "Hamburg Steinways"!!!

I'd love to go down the whole row of them....

Hi Robin,
Kathy and I both had the giant beers (we didn't realize they were going to be that big).
I know at least one person got a picture, will post when I figure out who.

Yes Mark C, all Hamburg Steinways as was the one I played at the BMW headquarters.

Opera House Munich






Big Glockenspeil - Munich



Driving to Salzburg


Driving to Salzburg

from BritishJim