How about an upright that is 9.84' high and weighs well over two tons? It's called a "Klavins" after its inventor, Davids Klavins of Bonn, Germany. (Interestingly the German word for upright piano is Klavier.) It is straight strung, has one continuous bridge, a Renner upright action and keyboard, and a concert hall constructed specifically for it. The pianist climbs a flight of stairs to a balcony where he sits at the keyboard, the action directly in front of him. Were you to photograph only the portion of the instrument above the balcony, you might almost think you were looking at only a very large upright. But beneath the balcony you see another five feet or so of strings, soundboard, bridge, plate... I have a CD of Michael Ponti playing Mussorgskij, Chopin and Liszt on it. The sound is awesome. When I first heard it, I did not know what instrument was being played and at first thought it might be a piano, but certainly not like any piano I had ever heard before. The bass is huge. Michael Ponti is quoted as saying "The unique size of the piano has an overwhelming effect on me. When I sit at the Klavins and play, it seems incomparably more impressive than anything I have ever experienced before." There is a whole page in the CD booklet about what he was trying to accomplish with the instrument. I believe I was told that he made the instrument as his project for his German Klavierbauer certification. Too bad I can't send some kind of music attachment! Diane Diane Hofstetter 245-M Mount Hermon Rd. Scotts Valley, CA 95066 ph 831-438-6222 fax 831-430-9741 dianepianotuner@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
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