[CAUT] Just how much brilliance can a pianist make ?

[Richard Brekne]

    Re:..." he could not get a satisfactory pianissimo.'....Ric...he
    was  referring to tone, and not the ability to control PPP
    playing...right?

    Dan
    Dallas

Yes, that was his claim.  He meant that the dynamic range as a whole was 
too much on the bright side.  Interestingly, the pianist he referred to 
also was referring to tone issues.  She meant that Steinway's should 
have a crystal like colour  (read quite bright) at all levels of play. 
For her the colour of the instrument should remain quite a bit more 
constant regardless of how loud or soft she played. 

I think I have both pianists pretty well pegged in terms of what they 
are after.... but one never knows for sure :)

That said, and interesting as the above contrast is, I am really most 
interested in hearing more on the lines of just how strong a pianist 
needs to be to get the most out of an instrument. If Jeff Tanners post 
is representative... then it strikes me that there is something else 
going on then just the velocity / momentum of the hammer.  Jeff is 
probably no overly light handed person yet he reports a heavy weighter 
being able to induce a buzz that no one else could... that would seem to 
indicate that very very strong hands can indeed get more volume/energy 
out of the instrument then less strong hands.  Yet the physical 
limitations as I understand them... and as has been discussed several 
times here and on pianotech would seem to prohibit this.

Head scratching time agin :)

Cheers
RicB