One of Those Days - Kinda OT

[Farrell]

WOW! Where can I buy a ticket?

BTW, not OT, IMHO.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Z! Reinhardt" <diskladame@provide.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2003 4:44 PM
Subject: One of Those Days - Kinda OT



This was one of those days.  A pianist from California staying in town left a message on my answering machine last night wondering if I could do a tuning before a sheduled memorial service at a nearby church today.  The piano was described as "lacking depth of tone" ... and it was delivered fresh from East Lansing, about 75 miles away.

What I came to was a brand new 9' Bluthner, probably fresh from the box and given only a perfunctory tuning.  What emerged was something of unprecedented glory with only so little as a solid tuning and some rudimentary touch-up of the voicing and regulation.  I wish I had all day for that piano, to really bring out what I could of its tone.  (I also wish I could play something that could do justice to what this piano is capable of.)

The pianist came around to do some practicing before the service, and thanked me profusely for the work I had done.  She was obviously thoroughly enjoying it now.  She started playing something that could only be played on a 9' ... the effect of which was enough to send me flying out of the room for a good cry.  I listened from the hallway outside of the sanctuary and tried to further imagine the effect had the tone been opened up just a little more in the top third of the piano.  As for all those people attending the service today ... may they too experience the passion this piano is capable of delivering at the hands of that pianist.

At this time, I don't know if the piano is here to stay (wouldn't that be nice) or if it will be going back to East Lansing.  The pianist is here only for the weekend.  She wanted my business card in the worst way ... I could only hope to cross paths with her again somewhere.  I'd love to just hang out with her outside the constraints of a schedule, just to learn more about what she, as an artist, looks for in a piano.  I'd also like to know how she can keep herself "pulled together" while playing the really passionate pieces, the ones that people like me fall apart upon hearing them.

Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net