An Evening In Vienna *Now with VIDEO*

To all PW members,

This Friday Nov. 16th, Cunningham Piano Company is hosting an afternoon open house featuring food, wine, and an open salon format of informal performances, all of which is featured around Vienna. Simon Oss, a Director of Bosendorfer, will be our special guest, as well as a collection of rare Art Case pianos from Bosendorfer.

Following the afternoon will be an evening recital beginning at 7 pm, featuring Philadelphia Orchestra members Kimberly Fisher and John Koen.

For more information or to register, please visit:

An Evening In Vienna

This sounds glorious, and I know it will be. I am really sorry I cannot attend.

Which art models will be there?

I've only seen three of them "live". Didn't like the Swarovski, liked the Porsche(?), and loved the Chopin A LOT. In general, I like the Bosendorfer art cases far more than those by Steinway(where I find about half of them "strange").

Free food, AND free music....??????? Am I reading this right?

**WARNING** Visitors may experience light-headedness, butterflies or other physical symptoms of love. Customers who are weak-in-the-knees will be provided comfortable benches and invited to sit down.

That sounds exciting, Rich.

Plover, the Chopin is my favorite of the traditional styles and the Porche my favorite of the modern styles, and I've seen a bunch of them. No company is immune from a few strange styles, but Bosendorfer rarely misses. Their sense of style reflects the best from history. I think contemporary designs are the toughest because they have to add an idea but not fall in just a few seasons like fashion.

It is a great thing to see.

PL,

We will be getting several traditional art cases along with a contemporary or two. They arrived last evening but I was out of the office.

One that I know is here is the Strauss:




Simon Oss, our special guest, will be telling the story of the original Strauss Bosendorfer that was stolen during WWII, eventually was found in the United States, and returned to Vienna in 2008. Pretty neat stuff!

Rich, I stopped by the showroom yesterday to talk to Maurice. I was overwhelmed by the craftsmanship. The Bosenedorfers are stunning.

Thank you Dave. I hope to see you.

Have the Sacher Tortes been delivered from the hotel?

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Actually, we DO have Sacher Tortes, Marty. The owner of a famous Philadelphia bakery is also a customer and he makes them for us.

LeBus Bakery

On my way over Rich. (anything on ice?)

now if you could only import the Albertina and the musical instrument museum that's across the street from the Kunsthistorisches we'd be all set. And of course the horse and carriage ride from the hotel... and a Würstelstand or two to quench your appetite and thirst along the way. Oh well - at least the pianos should be great!

Dear gmf001,

I have spent time at the Kunsthistorisches and if I could bring THAT to Philadelphia I would. One needs to set aside days of time there, IMHO.

The evening and afternoon went beautifully. We had some additional performers and that added some real variety to the evening. Here are a few photos:



Our own Vince Grantano attended!



A local pianist enjoyed a Bosendorfer concert grand in an art case - The Vienna.



Three of the evening performers let us take a quick photo as they chatted.

From left: Andy Wasserman, pianist, Marja Kaisla, pianist, John Koen, cellist



At the reception following the concert, we had refreshments in separate rooms. The attendees flowed through to try what each table offered.



Simon Oss, Director at Bosendorfer (second from the left) chats with Sandy Marcucci, Director of The Philadelphia International Music Festival (third from the left)

What is the wood veneer on the Vienna art case?

Good question!

PL, The piano is constructed of a vavona burl, which is meticulously matched over the entire case of the piano. The very light trim is inlayed pearwood and the name on the fallboard, instead of being brass, is also pearwood.

The theme of the evening was color - color of tone - not color of cabinetry.

Although the program was very varied the theme was demonstrated beautifully. The piano used was a Bosendorfer 200, which IMHO, is the perfect scale for a small recital gathering (we had just over 100 people) and is a very easy piano to balance within a chamber music setting.

Front Row Seat Productions recorded the evening for us and there are samples available to hear here:

Audio clips from "An Evening in Vienna"

The first musician from the Gershwin clip is Marja Kaisla (www.marjakaisla.org)

The second clip is Andy Wasserman, (www.andywasserman.com) who I asked to play 45 minutes before the concert because a scheduled musician could not make the performance. After thinking for a moment he said that he might play a medley of the tunes from "The Sound of Music". You might think that would be very boring, but listen to the clip. His entire performance was improvised.

The last clip is John Koen, cello, and Ruslan Odintsov, piano. (http://ruslan-odintsov.com/)

I would love to have been there. Ah well.

It was clearly glorious, as I had expected. I wish that I could have been there, and that my computer had better speakers!

Thanks for sharing, Rich! We now have three video clips available on the page you shared previously. What an incredible evening! It was an honor to be able to capture these performances for posterity.

Thank you Rob for your contagious enthusiasm and professionalism. I am impressed with what you can accomplish with so little gear! How do you do it?