Horowitz and Mohr

[Bill Ballard]

At 12:56 PM -0400 5/8/03, JStan40@aol.com wrote:
>One wonders whether it was simply short-sighted, or whether it was 
>also a self-protective sort of move........to insure that no one 
>else would (or could) be able to ask for it to be duplicated.  And 
>if that idea seems paranoic, well..........................when you 
>are dealing with marketing people, first and foremost, 
>then.................?

Protective move. Don't ask how laws and sausages are made, nor how 
Horowitz's piano was prepared. After years of looking the other way 
from standard regulating principles and practises, Horowitz's piano 
had become a monster. Essentially a forte-piano action coupled with a 
D belly.

Put yourself in the shoes of anybody in that factory. Would have 
rather have the public thinking that Horowitz's piano was the same as 
all the other production Ds (as with the post-mortem make-over)? Or 
would you let them in on the real Horowitz piano, to discover that, 
whatever it sounded like out in the hall, up close it was a a pile of 
sauerkraut and only Horowitz had the technique to make use of it.

I heard Franz Mohr say, in a small group, that before Horowitz's 
performance piano was reclaimed by the factory, he removed the shanks 
and hammers. They're in a box in his closet, but I don't think he's 
eager to show them off.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"May you work on interesting pianos."
     ...........Ancient Chinese Proverb
+++++++++++++++++++++