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Joined: Mar 2006
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Oh crap...Alex talked about it?!?
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Oh crap...Alex talked about it?!? I do not think to people outside of that circle. Anyway, Curt raves about your work. I am glad we were strapped for time and you could help. Are you prepping for Serkin now? I somehow have the feeling you are.
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Eric, Thank you for dropping by on such short notice. She is one of my favorite pianists and somebody who knows, to the soles of her feet, how to get the best, most characteristic sound from a Bosendorfer.
Yes, it's startling. It caught me off guard. You might expect the alluring blonde with a name that fits an East European tennis player to make Chopin drip at a piano bathed in candlelight, but the stamina, the power, the ease at dispatching some of the most ungodly difficult notes-per-square-inch material -- she's neither a female nor a male pianist, she's both! Bosie/Yamaha ought to do whatever it takes to keep her happy and not let a poorly prepped piano get between her and her audience. It's such a good fit; it shouldn't be messed with. That's why I referred to it as a powerhouse team. Anyone want to hear my story of meeting Van Cliburn? It includes Reagan and Gorby I've been meaning to tell you that I'd like to hear your story of meeting Van Cliburn that includes Reagan and Gorby. Any Ciccolini anecdotes would be appreciated as well. Make yourself at home, guy. This thread is at your disposal.
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For one brief shining moment, I represented Steinway by working for Jordan Kitt's Music in Washington DC. Van Cliburn was going to play for Reagan and Gorbachov, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juk7DHbVDOM and Kitt's was supplying the piano (no, I wasn't doing the prep...I had just graduated from business school and thought my tool bag carrying days were behind me). Cliburn wanted to come check the piano and since I was Operations Manager and experienced at artist relations and because, as was Cliburns custom, he wanted to come late at night I volunteered to meet him. About 11:30pm a limo pulled up and out came Cliburn, his 90-some year old Mother Rildea Bea, Franz Mohr and Richard Probst from Steinway, Susan Tilly from the Cliburn Foundation and another guy who was introduced as a friend of Van's. To make a long story short, the next 3 hours were spent in friendly talk and some wonderful playing, including his stunningly beautiful version of the national anthem of the Soviet Union. Everybody was happy with the piano (except me of course...I thought it should have 9 more bass notes), Mohr led a benediction at the end blessing the piano and off everybody went, much more alert and awake than I was.
Last edited by BoseEric; 02/07/13 09:02 AM. Reason: comma overload
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Sometimes dealers with no real concert division will send a concert piano fresh out of storage or on one occasion, fresh from a rebuild with soft hammers and way above pitch. They sometimes arrive late with no time left to do much.
Fortunately it doesn't happen often but Eric's earlier stories resonate. Sometimes I have recommended it better to do nothing to the piano than send the inexperienced tuner they were intending to send. A few minutes with the wrong tuner can destroy the stability patiently built up sometimes over years.
Even in the best places.... I arrived to do a tuning in a very well known hall to find the other piano improperly set up by the stage crew with wobbly legs and lyre. (the piano, not the stage crew, but I'm not too sure). It had been on its side for however long and consequently not tuned. Fortunately it had the modern fittings which I previously had thought foolproof.
Last edited by rxd; 02/07/13 10:02 AM.
Amanda Reckonwith
Concert & Recording tuner-tech, London, England.
"in theory, practice and theory are the same thing. In practice, they're not." - Lawrence P. 'Yogi' Berra.
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From a promotional perspective, I personally think that Bösendorfer should be all in with Lisitsa and let Steinway have its artist roster approach. A singular focus of one artist (who now has 53,0000,000 hits on Yutube), is not a bad thing. For better or worse Lisitsa is in tune with the times. In her debut concert with the Berlin Philharmonic this month, the audience will vote to choose the concert repertoire from a menu provided by her. She won't know exatly what she's going to play until she comes on stage. Gimmicky? Of course, but things like this do tend to release some of the stuffy stale air in the classical musical establishment and reach out to potential classical music fans of her own generation and younger. i agree, and i think the audience participation re: repertoire is fantastic. also, her interaction with comments on youtube is fantastic. live youtube albert hall concert was fantastic. big fan of her career trajectory; you go girlfriend!
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damn mac...
I don't type it but I do pronounce it Try Alt-u (Alt is the key left of the apple key, sometimes apple calls that the option key) and then o Bösendorfer
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turandot, I think its a personal preferrence. To me only few names deserves the very best, Alfred Cortot, Richter, Arrau, Argerich to name a few. So not being "one of the very best" is actually a complement. And I have no disrespect for a pianst that havent win any competition. In fact shes one of my favorite pianist alive today, I enjoy her performance more than Yundi Li, even Zimmerman and Pollini  I also think there are several people have better technics than Yolianna Aveeda during the competition but her performance was more "musical"
PLEYEL P124
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From a promotional perspective, I personally think that Bösendorfer should be all in with Lisitsa and let Steinway have its artist roster approach. A singular focus of one artist (who now has 53,0000,000 hits on Yutube), is not a bad thing. For better or worse Lisitsa is in tune with the times. In her debut concert with the Berlin Philharmonic this month, the audience will vote to choose the concert repertoire from a menu provided by her. She won't know exatly what she's going to play until she comes on stage. ... i agree, and i think the audience participation re: repertoire is fantastic. We as public also don't know what will be played when we buy the tickets? And that is good?
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Hi William, A great opportunity8 The Bösendorfer Imperial from Gerd Finkekstein - Hannover - where Valentina Lisista performed on for the recordings at the Roya Alabert Hall is for sale! Unser Bösendorfer Imperial 290 steht zum Verkauf! Dieses Instrument, das mittlerweile Furore gemacht hat, ist eines der Lieblingsinstrumente von Valentina Lisitsa ( www.valentinalisitsa.com). Sie hatte es nicht nur für ihre Konzerte im Beethoven-Haus Bonn und im Konzerthaus Dortmund ausgewählt – auch für ihr bejubeltes YouTube-live Konzert vor ca. 6000 Zuschauern in der Royal Albert Hall im Juni 2012 sollte es dieser Flügel sein. Dieses denkwürdige Konzert ist als DECCA-Mitschnitt veröffentlicht, und auf der Homepage von Valentina Lisitsa finden Sie eine Auflistung der Aufnahmen, für die sie unseren Imperial verwendet hat. Doch nicht nur Valentina Lisitsa: auch Daria van den Bercken und Evgeni Koroliov haben dieses Instrument für jüngst erschienene CD-Aufnahmen ausgewählt. Aus gegebenem Anlass steht dieser außergewöhnliche Konzertflügel jetzt zum Verkauf – eine einmalige Gelegenheit zum Preis von EUR 105.000,- (Neupreis EUR 145.990,-) mit einer kleinen Einschränkung: Valentina Lisitsa möchte ihr Konzert am 28.Februar in der Philharmonie in Berlin gern auf diesem Flügel spielen – wäre das nicht die Gelegenheit, sich von den Qualitäten dieses Bösendorfer Imperials live zu überzeugen?? Für den Käufer gibt es auf Wunsch sicherlich ein Autogramm von Valentina Lisitsa direkt auf der Gussplatte! Ihre Anfragen bezüglich eines Probespieltermines nehmen wir gern entgegen I can merely recommend ...that is all I can do unfortunately. schwammerl
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From a promotional perspective, I personally think that Bösendorfer should be all in with Lisitsa and let Steinway have its artist roster approach. A singular focus of one artist (who now has 53,0000,000 hits on Yutube), is not a bad thing. For better or worse Lisitsa is in tune with the times. In her debut concert with the Berlin Philharmonic this month, the audience will vote to choose the concert repertoire from a menu provided by her. She won't know exatly what she's going to play until she comes on stage. ... i agree, and i think the audience participation re: repertoire is fantastic. We as public also don't know what will be played when we buy the tickets? And that is good? She did the same for her Royal Albert Hall concert in London last year. The Great British Public chose...... well, you can see from her DVD (not CD), which contains the complete concert. She gives a choice of repertoire for each 'section' of her program, so that there will be something from the classical era, a sonata, Chopin, a big Romantic work, Rachmaninoff and so on. So, you won't get an all-Chopin concert, even if you wanted one.......
If music be the food of love, play on!
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Hi William,
A great opportunity! The Bösendorfer Imperial from Gerd Finkekstein - Hannover - where Valentina Lisista performed on for the recordings at the Roya Alabert Hall is for sale!
schwammerl Thank you for this unique opportunity, Luc, but I'm afraid I'm not worthy of it even if I could afford it. I encourage you to make an offer.  ----------------- Steve Y.A, No problems whatsoever. At this point I sinply enjoy all that I find enjoyable and am thankful to whatever artist in whatever art form brings it my way. Lisitsa has given me more enjoyment at no cost to me than any other living artist in any medium on the planet. I simply don't bother with thoughts about ranking any more. Life is too short.
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From a promotional perspective, I personally think that Bösendorfer should be all in with Lisitsa and let Steinway have its artist roster approach. A singular focus of one artist (who now has 53,0000,000 hits on Yutube), is not a bad thing. For better or worse Lisitsa is in tune with the times. In her debut concert with the Berlin Philharmonic this month, the audience will vote to choose the concert repertoire from a menu provided by her. She won't know exatly what she's going to play until she comes on stage. Gimmicky? Of course, but things like this do tend to release some of the stuffy stale air in the classical musical establishment and reach out to potential classical music fans of her own generation and younger. i agree, and i think the audience participation re: repertoire is fantastic. also, her interaction with comments on youtube is fantastic. live youtube albert hall concert was fantastic. big fan of her career trajectory; you go girlfriend! Choosing the program for a recital ahead of time is reasonable, but I think the idea that Lisitsa won't know until she comes on stage(not that anyone could know if this was really true)is pure gimmick and means she can't be as well prepared as if she knew the exact program beforehand. I saw a pianist(Leonid Hambro I think)who came to the recital with a long list of 100 works from which pieces were selected by random members of the audience. While a fun thing to do, it's not something I think makes sense for a serious recital but it could appeal to a younger audience that may attend Lisitsa's recitals.
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Lisitsa played the complete RAH program at a piano showroom in London (which I attended) several days before the actual concert, so she'd obviously decided by then what she was going to play. Presumably, the 'closing date' for the public voting was far enough in advance to give her time to prepare her pieces properly.
If music be the food of love, play on!
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Choosing the program for a recital ahead of time is reasonable, but I think the idea that Lisitsa won't know until she comes on stage(not that anyone could know if this was really true)is pure gimmick and means she can't be as well prepared as if she knew the exact program beforehand. plover, Let's put this to rest. If you're just looking for another chewbone, I'm sure there are tastier ones in the Pianist Corner. It is instant voting -- no absentee ballots, no pre-voting, all ballots cast at the beginning of the concert by those in attendance (as opposed to Royal Albert). Anyone who wishes to know exactly how it works can easily find out on Lisitsa's youtube channel. There is no reason for you to infer possible dishonesty. I mentioned in my post on this strategy that it is gimmicky, but I also mentioned that it has the potential to release some stale stuffy air from the classical music establishment. The menu does not include unlimited choices. Lisitsa must prepare for two different programs. Such preparation is common for touring artists who vary programs from site to site. All that is uncommon is that the audience, and not the performer, calls the tune. It's my own feeling that Lisitsa will acquire more fans of classical music than she will lose by this audience participation strategy. Her youtube hits are now at 54 million. Certainly you do not have to agree with me. But if you and others like you are lost in the process, I think she can live with it.
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These are simply extra-curriculum activities for Lisitsa. She's a sworn Brodmann artist. Norbert
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The menu does not include unlimited choices. Lisitsa must prepare for two different programs. Such preparation is common for touring artists who vary programs from site to site. All that is uncommon is that the audience, and not the performer, calls the tune. Two concert programs worth of choices is certainly reasonable to avoid the problems I mentioned. Of course, you didn't mention this previously. I have seen it done by Hambro with a list of 100 pieces. This is where no concert artist is going to be well prepared, and I think the gimmick element becomes too extreme for a serious recital.
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The menu does not include unlimited choices. Lisitsa must prepare for two different programs. Such preparation is common for touring artists who vary programs from site to site. All that is uncommon is that the audience, and not the performer, calls the tune. Two concert programs worth of choices is certainly reasonable to avoid the problems I mentioned. Of course, you didn't mention this previously. I have seen it done by Hambro with a list of 100 pieces. This is where no concert artist is going to be well prepared, and I think the gimmick element becomes too extreme for a serious recital. plover, Thank you for being reasonable. I apologize for not specifying the limited choices. I mentioned only "choices from a menu". I was thiking of the typical banquet menu...you know....soup or sald, fish or chicken, ice cream or a torte, tea or coffee. I wasn't thinking of Chin Ho's China Buffet , but I can understand that one could interpret 'menu' in many different ways. I agree with you that the Hambro event would be unlikely to show the artist in peak form. You know, Lisitsa doesn't miss a trick. She is one clever cross-promoter. One might think that people voting would vote for their favorite piecee without consideration of who's playing them. But no, she's uploading performances of the whole potential concert menu on youtube and encouraging ticket buyers to listen to the tracks of her playing to then choose what they like best. This creates even more tube traffic. with yet more Decca/Lisitsa pop-ups. It might be fun (although a side issue to the thread topic) to speculate on what the Berlin audience will choose. I'll try to post the menu here on the weekend so anyone who thinks it fun can venture a guess. If someone else on the thread will do it, all the better. In the meantime thanks again for being reasonable and apologies for any ambiguity.
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We as public also don't know what will be played when we buy the tickets? And that is good? personally i would guess that 80% of the concerts i attend are based on the artist(s), not the repertoire; e.g. if murry perahia is coming to town that's all i need to know. i like to be surprised musically. expecting an artist to conform to our pavlovian conditioning puts the cart before the horse, n'est–ce pas? i sometimes wonder what mozart & schubert would think of the reductionist state classical music finds itself in in our 'modern' times.
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For me both counts. If the same artists has a much better program at another location I'm willing to travel a lot of extra miles.
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