[pianotech] Big Foot in Concert

[Susan Kline]

Congratulations, Dale. A truly unforgettable transcendent experience.
To see a piano you lived with for so long and worked on so hard fulfill
its role so splendidly is as good as it gets.

For me, yesterday was very special as well, though with a smaller
footprint. Antonio Pompa-Baldi, who played here two years running, with the
OSU Symphony and the piano series, happened to have an engagement in 
Eugene,
and was invited to play in a local church series. The church has a 
Steinway A,
serial # about 250xxx, which was rebuilt by Steve Ganz in Portland about 
ten
years ago. It has a tone so rich one thinks of plum pudding or other 
holiday
foods one doesn't dare eat.

Antonio liked the piano well enough that he replaced the Hummel sonata
he was going to play with the Chopin Second Sonata. Second half was Liszt,
including a lot of the Annees de Pelerinage -- Suisse. When I
checked with him before the concert, he said the piano had no issues.
It needed nothing.

He's looking well, and it was such a pleasure to hear him play again. Such
incredible strong musicality, complete technical mastery, and delicacy of
thought and execution.

Susan Kline

On 5/21/2012 12:39 PM, Dale Erwin wrote:
>
> It had pictures but it didn't get thru so maybe later
>
> *Dale Erwin... RPT
> **Mason & Hamlin/Steinway/U.S pianos
> www.Erwinspiano.com
> 209-577-8397
> *
>
>
>
>
>   I admit this a bit of a sentimental journey but this is part and 
> parcel of our work and a part we may need more of.
> Many of you may remember the 1928 D that I took to the rebuilders 
> Gallery in Rochester  N.Y. 2006 & Los Angeles,Sacramento,Anaheim 
> later. I know many people enjoyed that instrument andfor me it was a 
> very happy outcome tonally.
>
>  My Personal Favorite D to Date. Its shop name was "Big Foot', AS it 
> had such a big footprint in the shop for soooo long. For many reasons 
> it was rebuilding process scattered over about 5 years.
>    After parading it here and there to conventions it finally sold 
> about 4 years ago to the Arkely center for the arts, a 1920 Theater 
> restored by a local family in Eureka on the remote North Calif. coast. 
> It was gratifying to place this beast in a place that was acoustically 
> the pianos equal, a really great space. The center is the hub of 
> culture in the region and the piano used by the symphony and others. 
> My friend and consummate technician Greg Granoff looks after the beast 
> now with great care. He is also the head tech for Humboldt state.
>   I had not seen/heard the piano since I delivered it 4 yrs ago. I've 
> been waiting for the right concerto at the right moment to make the 
> trek up there to see and hear this piano in concert in this space.
>  So I was  in Eureka Ca. over the weekend, about 300 mile drive from 
> Modesto, to hear...Bigfoot....
>  A young local talent Ryan McAvoy McCullough came back to the area to 
> perform the Rachmaninoff 3 thd piano concerto. Fantastic acoustics, 
> amazing young pianist,...He was near flawless. The performance  
> gripped me on so many emotional levels. It was similar to seeing one 
> of your children after a long absence. Someones voice you know and 
> love so well speaking to you again. The sound in the building, the way 
> he bonded to the keyboard & the nuance of tone coming from the 
> Instrument was truly a culminating moment in my ears and life. The 
> Beast has become the Black beauty!
>    What a journey that piano has been in my life.   The piano/pianist 
> sounded absolutely stellar. Best performance*__*_I,ve ever _heard on 
> my work.
> I'm on cloud nine this am. Beautiful day in that coastal town. Trix, 
> Jacob and Sara all here.... Life is good.
> Dale
> Aka...tone warrior :)
>
>
> *Dale Erwin... RPT
> **Mason & Hamlin/Steinway/U.S pianos
> www.Erwinspiano.com <http://www.Erwinspiano.com>
> 209-577-8397
> *
>
>
>
>

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