I've recently returned from a gracious invitation to present a technical to the Boulder Co. chapter of the PTG. What a great bunch of folks! At the end of the evening, our location host; Barth Story, gave me a tour of the showroom where he is employed. (BTW, this guy keeps his shop neat as a pin, and does some very nice work). Most of their pianos were European, including Boesendorfer, but the instrument that impressed me most was a mid-sized Steingraeber & Sohn. The power of the high treble was remarkable, but even moreso; the sustain. I just had to listen to C7 over and over again. Power, clarity and a wonderful long decay,.. I don't recall ever hearing the like of before. You may note from the cover of the April 2002 PT Journal there is nothing remarkable about the Steingraeber's physical scale; no tuned duplexes, no innovative bridge pinning etc. What Barth finally pointed out to me however was quite notable indeed, that is, once I finally realized what I was looking at: The area of soundboard (at least on this 6'10" model) extending behind the treble bridge is the largest I've ever seen! It even prompted jokes about why not make the case a pure rectangle. No, I'm not about to theorize, just suggest that from this personal experience anyways, "sustain" is alive and well amongst the grand olde euro clavier-meisters. best regards, and a fond hello to my fellow Boulder Chapter CAUTs! Mark Cramer, Brandon University
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