Corea Concert in Bergen

[Richard Brekne]

ETomlinCF3@AOL.COM wrote:

> Richard,
>
> If I may say so... You take a piano pounder like Corea and add a brand new,
> strings not settled and stretched Yamaha CFIIIS and an outdoor concert and
> you wind up with problems.  No piano can take all the variables until the
> strings settle and one tuner tunes the piano over a period of time.  I could
> have had a better experience with Chick if I would have had more than just a
> couple of twenty minute sessions to tune it outdoors in the wind and noise.
> Yamaha in America has Concert grand's for their Concert artist stationed in
> most major cities, as do other major piano companies.  So they don't need to
> send the piano for specific concerts.  They also have tuners that they are
> comfortable with all over as well.  When Yamaha's C n A department opened
> many years ago they would send a Japanese tuner with Andre Watts to court him
> and make sure everything was fine.  I don't believe they do this any more.  I
> got some great advice from LeRoy Edwards a week ago.  He said he wants the
> piano to be at concert temp for a day and at least two hours of silence.  If
> for any reason (sound and lighting people) the place is not quiet he politely
> gets up and leaves.  He lets the promoter know this ahead of time.  That way
> his reputation is in tact and he does not worry about the piano being stable.
>  I have adopted his policy after long conversations with him about this at
> dinner.  Does any one else have special rules you live by in these situations?

Under the circumstances you describe I wholeheartedly aggree with you. This
however was an indoor concert, the piano has had 48 hours in location and 96 hours
in town with 10 hours of prep by the Yamaha tech, who split town the day before
the first concert, and two 4 hour tuning sesions by what can only be termed as an
over stressed tech. He just plane worked too hard at getting it too perfect.
There is a story behind all this, but I wont get into that. The fellow is a good
tech to be sure.. but he bombed on this occasion.

I aggree with LaRoy, but I find that it is not always possible to follow his
advice, as for example last nite. I got asked to clean up the mess, and if I didnt
nobody else would have, and Coreas second set would have gone down the tubes.
What to do ??  I cleaned up the mess as good as conditions allowed for, and Corea
was happy.

By the way.. I aggree with you as to the value of one tuner consistantly taking
care of any given piano. I cant prove anything, but it seems to be that pianos are
always a bit less stable right after a change in techs. Which is part of why I had
no problem with Yamaha sending up their man. I dont know why he wasnt here for the
full term of the show. The worst part of this is that Corea was recording the
session, and the first set was trashed because of the tuning. Well, well,  life is
tough and then you die... grin.

In any case.. just goes to show you... three different tuners on this piano in 4
days.. no continuety.


Richard Brekne
I.C.P.T.G.  N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway