Piano placement for concerto

[David M. Porritt]

Phillip:

The piano placement sounds interesting.  I've seen the opposite,
piano facing the orchestra pianist back to the audience, but that was
because the pianist was also conducting.  

I'm most curious about the music.  I've never seen a concerto played
by someone using a score.

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/31/2003 at 4:17 PM Phillip Ford wrote:

>Over the weekend I went to a concert by the San Francisco Symphony. 
>Jean-Philippe Collard was the piano soloist in the Poulenc concerto.
 The
>piano placement was a first for me.  The piano had been placed in
the
>center of the orchestra with the tail up against the conductor's
podium
>and the keyboard away from the audience so that when the pianist was
>seated he was facing the conductor and the audience.  The top of the
piano
>had been removed.
>In terms of coordination between pianist and conductor this
arrangement
>seems to make a lot more sense than the conventional arrangement.
>In this hall, from my usual seat in the first balcony, the piano
sound was
>dramatically different than it is with the usual placement of piano
center
>left at front of stage, pianist in profile, and lid up.  The piano
sounded
>much more part of the ensemble rather than like a separate voice
detached
>from the orchestra.  Also, the balance of the piano sound was
altered. 
>The midrange and treble were more pronounced with the bass being
less
>dominant.  To my ears concert pianos often have an overdominant bass
end. 
>That was not the case in this concert.  The pianist could still get
a
>powerful bass sound when he wanted, and he occasionally did, but for
>'normal' playing the piano sound had a better balance for my taste.
Also,
>for better or worse, you could not see the pianists hands, so your
>attention was not diverted by watching him play, and you could
concentrate
>on listening to him play.
>I also thought it was refreshing to see both conductor and pianist
using a
>score (and turning their own pages) rather than working from memory.
>
>Phil F
>
>
>
>Phillip Ford
>Piano Service & Restoration
>1777 Yosemite Ave - 130
>San Francisco, CA  94124
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives


_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
_____________________________