[CAUT] Grand Obsession

[Fred Sturm]

Hi all,	
	I just finished reading the book, Grand Obsession by Perri Knize, and  
would heartily recommend it to one and all. I was originally planning  
to give it a miss, having read enough books that, well, get everything  
technical about pianos wrong and are annoying as a result. But a  
couple colleagues told me I had to read it, and I'm glad I did.
	It is worth getting hold of if only for the chapters about the  
Grotrian-Steinweg factory and the German soundboard industry. But  
there is a lot more. Issues of piano owner/pianist, and the  
relationship with technicians, dealers, manufacturers. Getting at the  
nitty gritty of communicating. Some deep philosophical stuff about  
psychology, neurology, and vibrations. Descriptions of a wide variety  
of piano dealers and salespeople. Spot on descriptions of people many  
of us know: I found her portrayals of Steve Brady and Darrell Fandrich  
particularly spot on.
	Very vivid and compelling writing, and very well researched and  
vetted: most of the technical stuff about pianos is either  
indisputably correct or well within the boundaries of what people  
argue about.
	Oh, and that famous "Schubert concert tuning" that was mentioned on  
this list a while back, a label Marc Wienert gave to a stretch style  
based on clean double octaves (as is made pretty clear in the book):  
this is the source.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu