The word from various places around the country is that the piano business, at least the high end, is up slightly. This is more than a slightly big deal for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is that this part of the business has been pretty clobbered for a while and is seen (at […]
The piano world
2 basic concepts of fine piano tone
Let’s digress for a moment and speak in gross generalizations about concepts of piano tone. I have come to the conclusion, specifically reinforced by Udo Steingraeber, that there are fundamentally 2 approaches to piano tone; high rim tension and low rim tension. (don’t bust my chops on theoretical details, remember this is gross generalization). Low […]
Rare piano logo in New York Times
You rarely see the logo of a European piano manufacturer in photos that occasionally accompany music reviews in the New York Times. But it does occasionally happen as shown here with the relevant text. “The three musicians gave committed performances throughout the evening. Mr. Lepauw played with sparkling clarity on the bright-toned Fazioli piano … […]
I am diminished….
The music world lost a great man on Sunday. Dr. Mark P. Malkovich III, artistic director of the Newport Music Festival, died in a car accident in Minnesota. I also lost a dear friend and mentor. The words of the title of this post were uttered by Leonard Bernstein when he learned of the death […]
Bosendorfer opens new selection center
The new selection center in Wiener Neustadt Austria opened with a performance by Paul Badura-Skoda
What does quality mean?
Quality is a term that is passed about with great ease in the piano industry. The term itself has a rather benign meaning; “high grade, superiority, excellence”. But what does that mean in the piano world and is there any reason the term high quality should be limited to certain makers? If you’ve been exposed […]