An open invitation to everyone in the PianoWorld community to join the Faust Harrison family in welcoming the new Yamaha CFX to New York.

Since its introduction at the Anaheim NAMM show just a few months ago, The CFX has become the "talk of the town". We'd like you to see and hear for yourself what the buzz is all about.

The piano will be available for viewing at our Manhattan showroom (205 west 58th Street) from Thursday, May 13 through Tuesday, May 18 before it continues on its extensive national tour. Please drop by anytime between May 12th and 18th during showroom hours to see and play it. If you wish, you may call ahead to reserve some time with the piano (212-489-3600). We will do our best to accomodate you.

In the evenings, the CFX will be the performance piano for concerts by Abbey Simon, Frederic Chiu, Alex Wu and Lincoln Mayorga.

Details about the concerts are posted on our web site (www.faustharrisonpianos.com). Seating is limited, so please request a seat before they're all taken.

Sara, Michael and I and the entire Faust Harrsion staff look forward to seeing you.

Irving

Any chance that a CF series will be coming to Canada any time soon? I'm quite eager to try one (but not quite rich enough to fly down to NYC on a whim to try one)

Irving,

Congrats on the introduction of Yamaha to your line-up. I had a chance to see the new CFX pianos at NAMM this year and they were beautiful!

Nice to see you back at PianoWorld after a long sabbatical... I want to wish you and Sara all the best.

AJF,

I'll try to learn from Yamaha if they have any tour plans for the CFX in Canada. You might also check with your local Yamaha dealer regarding his/her plans to order CF pianos. In playing either the CF4 or the CF6, you'll get a very good sense of what the CF series is all about.

Chris,

Thanks for the kind words. I took a "sabbatical" for both personal and business reasons - reasons that are no longer issues for me. However, there is so much happening in our business right now, that I doubt that I'll have the time to lend my two cents here quite yet. We'll see.

Irving,

This might be a good excuse for a trip to Manhattan.

It is good to see you contributing here again. Yours is a voice that has been missed here.

What are the differences(in design, sound, touch) between the older Yamaha concert grand and S series vs. the newer C(FX) model(s)?

I'd love to be there to give it a whirl, but alas I'm here doing my job.

Hi Irving!

Congratulations on representing the new CFX. I played them at NAMM and was very impressed. They sound European and nothing like a Yamaha. Best of luck with it.

PL,

Aside from some major, top-secret changes to just about every part of the piano, Yamaha gave the green light to its master craftsmen to use an extra helping of magic pixie dust in the action and in the belly. There are some non-proprietary improvements as well that I expect to be infomed about in the near future. I'll pass the info along when I have it.

Rich,

Thank you. As for a good excuse for a trip to Manhattan, I can think of at least one besides seeing the CFX - seeing me and Sara!

We actually have a Website for the trio of new CF pianos at
www.cfseries.com

It will answer at least some of the questions which are being posed just about every day now.

James

Irving, I would love to come to New York and take a look at the new CFX from Yamaha, but unfortunately it takes quite a jurney from Switzerland. :-)

Is it possible, that you post some pictures here ?

I've learned a bit more about the design of the new CF pianos. Three features (among many) that distinguish them are: an especially resiliant rim; a scaling that is uniquely CF; and a unique, new CF plate design.

The degree to which each of these three features contribute to the essence of these "wunder-pianos" is anyone's guess, but I expect that each one meaningful.

Michelangelo, Of course I'll post pictures. Thank you for asking. These will help you to see the CFX, but what can I do to help you hear it and feel it? I would surely be happy to pick you up at the airport.

The CFX series got a very positive review in the latest issue of International Piano magazine.

Hmm. I have off on Friday from work, so hopefully I'll have some free time to see this piano.

Would love to see this

The Abbey Simon and Frederick Chiu concerts were magnificent and thrilling. I'll explain why in the days ahead and I'll also post pictures. In the meantime, here's an abridged version of a Howard Kissel review of the Chiu concert. The entire review can be seen on line (see the link below).

The Cultural Tourist
by Howard Kissel
NY Daily News
May 15, 2010 2:53 PM
Frederick Chiu and the Yamaha CFX »
By Howard Kissel


...I attended a stupendous concert by Frederick Chiu at the Faust Harrison Piano showroom (on Friday night)... Chiu was performing on the new Yamaha CFX Concert Grand... Only a handful of these handmade instruments exist. One is touring this country, another Europe, and there are a few back home in Japan.

As Chiu, who performs in New York too seldom, made clear, the size, brilliance and subtlety of the sound are extraordinary. It was almost too powerful for the simple space, but the magnitude of the sound was that much more visceral.

The first part of the program featured composers who were particularly sensitive to the emotional and textural qualities of the piano. Bach and Mozart, whose keyboards were quite primitive compared to those of the 19th century, were less concerned with color than they were with thematic development.

Chopin, on the other hand, experiments with structure because he is more interested in harmonic innovation and emotional expression. Chiu played three Chopin Etudes, in which he -- and the piano -- illuminated the complexity of these pieces. One is always aware of the technical virtuosity Chopin demands, but on this piano you are equally aware of the tricky balance between polyphonic structure and emotional surge.

Debussy and Ravel were both masters of pianistic color, Ravel especially. Chiu gave his "Une barque sur l'ocean" extraordinary poetic subtlety and intensity. He concluded the first part with a Prokofiev Toccata that reminded us the piano is a percussive instrument. Chiu's performance of this fiendishly difficult piece was masterly.

In the second part he played a Lizst [sic] transcription of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Before beginning he reminded us that when Lizst performed he always had a piano waiting in the wings -- his attack on the keys was often so brutal that he destroyed the instrument in the course of performance and always had to have another ready.

A few years ago, when the Met added a piano that had belonged to Lizst to its rare instruments collection they had a pianist who specialized in Lizst performance demonstrate it. He said that performing on this piano was particularly difficult since the savagery of Lizst's attacks on it often had destructive effects on the inner mechanisms. Moreover the piano was constantly going out of tune, its rejoinder, I guess, to Lizst's aggressiveness.

Needless to say, Lizst's transcription is ferociously difficult. "In Lizst's day the question at any concert," Chiu joked, was "would the piano survive. Tonight the question is, Will the pianist survive?"

Hearing one of Beethoven's most familiar symphonies for piano solo was revelatory. The structure of the piece -- its odd repetitiveness -- was much more exposed than it is with 100 instruments adding odd colors. Chiu's playing was beyond dazzling.

Being an extremely generous performer, he also did three encores, the last of which was his own breathtaking transcription of the Troika from Prokofiev's "Lt. Kije."

When I spoke to him afterward I mentioned I was grateful he did not know Arthur Schnabel's dictum that "Applause is a receipt, not an invoice." Schnabel didn't give any encores.

Given that every piano presents its own difficulties, I asked if this powerhouse piano was even more difficult to adapt to...

"Normally at a certain point you're fighting the limitations of the piano, which is helpful. You're meeting resistance, which you have to work against. Here there are no limitations. You're afraid that if you're not careful, you can go into free-fall."


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2010/05/frederick-chiu-and-the-yamaha.html#ixzz0o6k8XD1g

I went into free fall once while playing the piano but it was because the bench broke during a practice session(really!).

Could you tell us a little about Abbey Simon's program?

http://fredericchiu.blogspot.com/2010/05/abbey-simon-on-yamaha-cfx.html

Pianoloverus,

This picture (of the bass bridge in the CFX) shows one interesting difference. I don't know just what these holes do, perhaps one of the piano engineers can explain, but I would guess that they play a role in creating the amazing bass sound in the CFX that I haven't heard in any other piano.

I've seen holes like that in other piano bridges as well...maybe European ones?