Horowitz piano

[Elwood Doss, Jr.]

"Back in '92"--that was a century ago...or maybe it was last century,
something like that!
Elwood

Elwood Doss, Jr.
Technical Director/Piano Technician
Department of Music
225 Fine Arts Building
University of Tennessee at Martin
731/587-7482
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: Horowitz piano


> 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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