On 2/17/05 4:25 PM, "Bdshull@aol.com" <Bdshull@aol.com> wrote:
> Hi, Fred,
>
> I visited the Metropolitan Museum in late 2001 with the incredible Art Tour
> Guide Eric Schandall (seriously), and got to view the piano, I took pictures
> of course. (Using film and no flash, the exposure setting required a tripod,
> which I didn't have, and the guard wouldn't let me lean against the wall; but
> then he would turn his back so that I could lean against the wall anyway...I
> got a few shots!) The Erard has a stunning finish, I assume french polish.
> It's an 1860's instrument, past Liszt's prime performance and composing years
> but otherwise still much like his earlier instruments because after 1850 Erard
> changed little for 50 years.
>
> Bill
>
Hi Bill,
There's a very ornate Erard in unplayable condition in the musical
instrument gallery. The newly acquired one is down in storage, and
purportedly in playable condition. The curator (actually assistant curator,
who apologized for not being really expert on the keyboard instruments as
that wasn't his specialty) was very proud of this recent donation/loan (I
don't remember) acquisition.
The music section was closed (the Met closes various sections at
completely unpredictable times), so we had a private tour and got to _play
the instruments!_ I had the incredible opportunity to play a Ruckers
harpsichord, the Cristofori, the Graf, the Broadwood, the Mozart era (not a
Stein, don't recall the name) and one or two others. As luck would have it,
an event or two had taken place a week or two before, so all were even in
reasonable tune. Amazing experience.
Anyway, the Erard on display is not the instrument I was referring to.
The curator was most gracious, the Steinway name (and Eric's charm) being
the open sesame. But I believe it would be quite possible to make
arrangements to see the Liszt Erard with a bit of advance notice, and a wee
bit of resume padding <g>.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
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