Terry, Your story was very interesting but I feel uncomfortable that you have scrutinized a fellow-technician's work in a negative manner on a public forum that has thousands of members. If I had been the technician in question I would be angry and hurt. I mean this in as friendly way as possible towards you. I believe you had no ill intentions, and are genuinely interested in discussing concert prep. In these situations I recommend keeping the concert and the technician anonymous to avoid any bad feelings. Then everyone could feel comfortable discussing the topic. :) Ry On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 8:57 AM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>wrote: > Went to see Joshua Bell last night. Very lovely performance without a > doubt. Major WOW! > > The piano. Got some questions. I have tuned pianos for rather minor-type > concerts (college stages, a few "pop stars", etc.), but never truly > "prepped" a piano for a high-end pianist. I have very little exposure to > nice pianos - and especially excellent pianos that are well prepared. > > Sam Haywood played with Joshua - just the two. They played Brahms Sonata #2 > in A Major, Op.100; Schubert Fantasy in C Major, Op.159, D. 934; Grieg > Sonata #2 in G Major, Op.13, and then two pieces that were not on the > program - something very lovely by a Finnish composer and then a Virtuoso > piece often played by Pagnini (sp?) - kinda of a romantic period Jimi > Hendrix kind of thing - really enjoyed that! > > Anyway, back to the piano. S&S D. I don't know anything else about it other > than it had a lid and was black. Unless the piano is way out of tune, when > someone is playing a piece with lots of quick notes, I can't really tell > much about the tuning. When individual notes are played slowly, I could > certainly hear that the unisons were pretty darn nice - well, perfect as far > as I could tell. John Philips did whatever tuning and prep work was done (I > am presuming this because he was the tech to did the touchup at intermission > - pretty safe assumption, yes?) John Philips is generally regarded as the > old guard highest caliber piano technician and concert technician in the > Tampa Bay area for decades. My understanding is that he does most if not all > of the piano prep for the Florida Orchestra, among others. Pretty safe to > say I think that he is pretty darn top-notch. > > And no, he did not use an ETD during intermission tuning touchup! I really > didn't hear him doing anything with intervals, so I think he was just > touching up unisons. > > BTW, I was in the cheap seats - second from last row at Ruth Eckerd Hall in > Clearwater, Florida. FWIW, the last row at Eckert has better acoustics that > the best row at most other venues. It is well known very very nice > acoustics. > > The piano sounded to me dull and lifeless. Tone was monotone - not > Kodachrome-tone. Don't know if that was the piano, my ears, the acoustics > where I sat, or what. Haywood would play softly and the piano was very > mellow, if not a bit mushy. And then I would see his hair fly up, his arms > flail, and his body bounce a bit from the seat - and the piano cord struck > was a bit louder for sure, but the tone seemed to stay the same - dull > lifeless, mellow, if not a bit mushy. > > I was wondering if a piano might be purposely voiced in such a manner for a > concert such as this - so that the piano doesn't overpower or take the focus > away from the violist. I really don't think it was my ears or the acoustics > because Joshua's violin was consistently very clear, focused and > Kodachrome-tone - full of color - soft, mellow delicate, then bright and > powerful and everything in between. Is voicing the piano down ever done for > a concert like this? Could that explain why the piano sounded to me the way > it did? Or have I just been hearing to many Yamaha C3s and C7s? Oh yeah, and > too many 1948 Gulbranson spinets and the such? > > Another thing. Again, don't know if this was me, my ears, my prejudices, > the acoustics, my seat, the ladies hat in front of me, or what, but when > John was trying to clean up unisons in the high treble at intermission - at > least the entire uppermost octave, as he turned his lever I heard the very > fast beating, then slower beating and it seemed like pretty much every note > was cleaned up to where it sounded like two trash can lids being banged > together - well, different sized lids for different notes, but all > distorted, presumably with false beats. Sounded like crap. You know, like > 99% of the pianos out there. I don't know where this piano was from - > whether Ruth Eckert Hall owns it, or the Florida Orchestra, or whether it > was on loan/rent from the local S&S dealer (that's my suspicion, but I have > no concrete reason to think that). > > Again, keeping in mind that I have NEVER tuned/prepped a piano for anyone > anywhere near the caliber of the musicians address here, and assuming I am > correct in my perception that the upper treble was littered with false > beats, and mix into that if the piano was not purposely voiced way down and > that the piano really was a dull lifeless piano - is such a poor excuse for > a high performance piano like this really ever found acceptable for > musicians like these? Do they just bear with it? Or would that be so unusual > that the poor tone and false beats were likely just the acoustics or me? > > Thanks for reading! I think that it would be fascinating to tune/prep fine > pianos for musicians like these - man, what challenge! And potentially, how > rewarding! My hat is off to you tech who do this kind of work! > > Terry Farrell > > > -- Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110206/4948f66c/attachment-0001.htm>
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