Steinway O (was RE: Stein..Player)

[Keith A. McGavern]

>...Today the pianos,
>the pianists, the music and the sounds are much different from the way
>they used to be. Some call this progress. Not I. This is not the beginning,
>this is the end. The Golden Age of the piano was a century ago, when the
>likes of Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Chickering, Knabe, Weber and the like
>ruled the world! Today, of all those great names, only Steinway remains,
>itself but a pale reflection of what it once was. Which is why, when I
>find a vintage Steinway like yours, I seek to restore it, rather than to
>rebuild it.
>
>Decades later, the sound of that model B from my youth still echoes in
>my ear and remains a benchmark against which I measure all other pianos.
>Sometimes after a day of working on modern Steinways, Yamahas, Kawais
>and the like, when I get home I sit down at my ancient Knabe concert grand,
>or the old Steinway sitting next to it, or the even older Chickering sit-
>ting next to that, and play a little Chopin, or Mendelssohn or Liszt. They
>remind me of how the great pianos used to sound and of why I became a tech-
>nician in the first place. That's something I never want to forget.
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Les Smith
>lessmith@buffnet.net

While I laud your memoirs and sentiments, Les, and can agree with you about
the incredible workmanship of former days, and of the mystique of the some
of the older Steinways and other instruments, I cannot join you in your
belief that the Steinway of today is but a pale reflection of what it once
was.  Nor that this is the end of fine piano makers.  Besides Steinway &
Sons, behold Fazioli, Schimmel, Bluthner, Bosendorfer, Bechstein, Feurich,
E. Seiler, Yamaha, Kawai, Boston, and others.  Hardly inferior instruments,
but instruments for this age.  Companies and people dedicated  to producing
quality instruments to meet the demands of today's quality players.

Keith McGavern, RPT
kam544@ionet.net
Oklahoma Baptist University
Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA