Pierre, Joe, and Conrad Whilst I am sure our Belgium friend does fine work indeed, this particular piece will remain in its present location, and undergo restoration as the University sees fit using the many fine Nordic resources available. We have several excellent museums and authorities at our immediate disposal and each of them will be drawn in as advisories and in any other capacity we feel we need through the process. But the instrument is really in such decent shape to begin with, that there is no doubt it will be put into full service again as a concert instrument. Not a concert instrument in the same sense that a brand new Steinway D is mind you. There is a growing demand, at least in the Nordic countries, for music played on instruments that predate 1900. We get into this old versus new wood discussion often enough, and this reality perhaps more then any illustrates the validity of the position taken by so many who prefer, or at the very least readily enjoy the sound that only very old instruments can offer. Tis true that many old instruments become utterly destroyed to a degree no one can question. Tis also true that many have gone through a process of wear and tear and aging that leave them in a state where they are capable of offering a sound that is charming in a sense that only that process can yield. Which brings me to a point I wonder increasingly about. With the inevitable near total demise of the modern piano market as we know it today nigh at hand, why do not more rebuilders, builders, and independents begin to take an more active interest in reviving many of the instrument types of old. Diagrams, drawings, and technical readouts exist in plenty now on how many such instruments were built. Modern technology and the things learned in the piano industry these past 100 years should make it relativly easy to revive older piano types true to original form yet improved from a strictly structural point of view. Many of these are without a doubt less costly to build relative high levels of quality into then it is to build low levels of quality into the cheapest possible modern upright variants. As with many instruments before it, the piano is fated IMHO to recede sooner or later. Probably sooner then most will find it comfortable to admit. Mass production of cheap acoustic instruments will be replaced by even less expensive electronics that will in the end surpass in quality their cheap acoustic counterparts. When that happens the entire fundament of the industry will be swept away leaving only very high quality instrument production left that will increasingly become a specialty market... a market open for just about anyone who has the building skills and necessary instrument knowledge to exploit. Seems to me a good idea to begin now, and indeed the evident financial success of a handful of historical copies builders would indicate to me that this is true. Food for thought Richard Brekne
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