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That is a very interesting observation! Thank you.

My piano here in Sweden is a pre-Soviet Petrof. It has a very warm sound though the tone is a bit boxed in.

Practicing on lower grade pianos might be a good thing vs. pianos that do too much of the work for the pianist. Going from a lower grade piano in practicing to a higher grade one in performing is easier than the other way around, just as going from a piano with a heavier action in practice to a piano with a lighter action in performance is far more comfortable than the other way around. In a performance the piano used might be anything. At a Bach Festival in 1999 the piano I played was an upright, and that was at a big church too and just outside of N.Y.C.

Maybe Michelangeli just was very much of a perfectionist in the repertoire he played? Perhaps the Petrof had some issues which required him to always really concentrate for accuracy, and then with a fine piano in a performance he hardly had to focus on that aspect.

Hi Derulux, I know someone in the U.S. who lost much of his hearing and had to start practicing on a digital with headphones. Suddenly his playing on a real piano became much more expressive, maybe from trying to get the digital to "work". So perhaps, though frustrating, there is that benefit?

I have a Roland F-110 here and when I go from it to the Petrof, it seems like a lot of the intensity of concentration in playing expressively suddenly has been taken care of.

Maybe when us pianists have to do such things, whether to accommodate neighbors during some hours as I do or for other reasons, it is a blessing in disguise?