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My last two lessons have been at my teachers office at a University.
It is a large room, maybe 12 ft by 30 ft, with the soaring (maybe 20 ft) ceilings.
The entire north side has windows that extend from the ceiling down to about 5 ft above the floor.
This gives a feeling of being outdoors, yet has a safe private feeling. A very unique space.
When you play one of the pianos (there are two) all of that wonderful north light streams down from behind
you.
It has that bright, but soft feeling you get from being in a greenhouse.

One piano is a satin ebony Steinway. An old Hamburg B.
It is voiced on the soft side for me and I have to work to make the voices sing.
The keytops are smooth ivory in perfect but broken-in condition.
The ivory grips my fingers. I like it.
Thousands of books have worn the felt on the music desk down to the unfinished wood beneath.
The interior has a warm mahogany veneer on the inside of the rim.

The other piano is a Bosie 214 that belonged to Frank Sinatra.
He donated the piano and substantial funds to the music department of the University.
He was catholic, as is the school.
The Bosie needs some regulation work but has a wonderful singing tone.
It is a very energetic and eager piano.
I can just imagine Frank's smooth voice riding on top of the sound of the 214.

Both these rugged aristocratics are worn, dusty, and could use a good tuning.
Yet there is a sincere workhorse character to them.
It reminds me of something Vincent van Gogh claimed that he tried to paint.
He wanted to capture the look that a lifetime of hard work carves into a laborer's face and hands.

I feel privileged to be working with these pianos.
They have given decades of music to thousands of souls.

I got to play Vladimir Horowitz's personal Steinway D which he also happened to take on the 1986 tour through Russia. It's always fun to watch the "Horowitz in Moscow" DVD with my friends and brag to them that I play THAT very piano. The finish showed a number of scratches and signs of wear and the keys were ivory, yellowed by Horowitz's sweat. It didn't look like it was in very good condition, but it sounded perfect!

That same day, I got to play Cliburn's Model D. He kept his piano in better condition, though.

Finally, probably the best piano I have ever played in terms of sound, action, etc. was the 500,000th Steinway ever made (a Model D again, of course). That was awesome.

My professor was a student of John Perry at USC and he said that Perry owned Artur Rubinstein's piano and he'd have his lesson on it every week. It was a Model D, but he said it was like no other piano he'd ever played and jokingly claimed that "playing that piano was better than sex!"

Mike

Hi Kenny,

Thank you for allowing us to share your piano experience vicariously. I don't think anyone else has expressed such an awed appreciation of seasoned pianos as well as you have here. You truly have the soul of a poet.

Dang! I wish I could come to your teacher's concert! April 20th is the very day I will be up in the bay area visiting Max the son. And what fun it would be to sit with you and other southern CA piano music aficionados, basking in the music and yakking afterwards about this amazing internet community.

A tangent: In an email Max raved about a recent Murray Perahia concert he attended at Berkeley. The program:

Beethoven 32 Variations in C minor (a personal fave)
Schubert Sonata in A Major, D. 959
Chopin Ballade No. 2 in a minor, Op. 38
Mazurka in Bb minor, Op 24 No. 4
Mazurka in D major, Op 33, No 2
Etude in E minor, op 25 no 5
Etude in Ab major op 25 no 1
" " G-Sharp Minor " " no 6
Nocturne no 17 in B major op 62 no 1
Ballade no 3 in Ab major, op 47

....and then he did three encores!

Are you still quagmired in long work hours?
Please forgive me for zig-zagging up there.
I hope others from the Forum will attend your teacher's concert. Classical artists need our support. They are an endangered species!

All best,
Joy

Joy, I am attending Murray Perahia's concert in Kalamazoo, MI (the Gilmore Festival Prelude concert) tomorrow night (hopefully there will be student rush tickets left since they have been promoting them to death and if they were out they would be quite embarrased!) and it is this exact same program. We are all really looking forward to it. I'm glad there have been raves about this concert. I played the Beethoven variations this year and now I'm even more excited!

Hi wmudavidb,

Kewl! Enjoy the performance!

Joy