I had the opportunity to listen to Franz Mohr give a seminar in Seattle some years ago, and what he said then was simply that the hammers got worn, and then more worn, and then worn through to the wood as the years went by. Horowitz simply refused to let anyone change them or change the voicing on them. Seemingly his hearing suffered somewhat as time went by, and he liked the pling of those rock hard hammers. I also got to see this instrument on that occasion, prior to Steinways << restoration >>. You could almost blow the keys into action they were so light. In any case the story about the maestro's insistance seems to have gotten altered in the telling. He insisted alright, but his insistance was against doing anything about the increasing brightness of the piano. At least thats what was said in Seattle back in 92... Back in 92.... now there's a line for you :) Cheers RicB Mickey Kessler wrote: > > These observations seem consistent with what Franz Mohr said in his > autobiography (at least in the excerpts I've read). If I remember > correctly, he strongly disputed claims that Horowitz ever requested, or > got, any special modifications to his piano. In fact, Mohr gave the > impression that Horowitz wasn't particularly demanding about the instrument > -- though he seems to have let his stage fright spill out onto the > technician from time to time. > > This contradicts a Horowitz biography of some years ago which claimed the > treble hammers were made hard as glass at the maestro's insistence. Given > that that biography also made a lot of baseless allegations against > Horowitz (for example, that he had a very limited repertoire), I'm inclined > to believe Mr. Mohr. > > Mickey Kessler > > -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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