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

[Richard Brekne]

Hi folks.

Ran into an interesting tidbit the other day which prompted me to put 
the following to you all. I service a relatively young D here in town 
and there are a few different local pianists who are regulars on it. 
After summer I was asked by the youngest of these, a 17 year old 
prodigy, to calm it down a bit. His concern was that he could not get a 
satisfactory pianissimo.  One of his main influences is a prominent 
pedagogue in the Russian tradition for the record. I mentioned that a 
few of the other pianists... one in particular wanted the thing pretty 
much as it was... brighter really as they felt they could not get enough 
brilliance out of the instrument.  He kind of snorted and said something 
along the lines of "thats because she can not make her own brilliance".  
Ok... the kids got a heavy hand I'll give him that.....

BUT...  given the physical limitations of the piano I have to wonder 
something about just how much "brilliance" is in the grasp of players... 
and in particular if his hands, heavy tho they may be, should indeed be 
able to out power just about any other accomplished player.  The action 
will allow only so much hammer velocity yes ?  Is not top velocity and 
for that matter momentum within the reach of just about any very good 
player ? Just how strong do you have to be ?

This is a question I've never really asked myself and if there is a real 
significant window of variance here... then I suppose it needs to be put 
into my voicing awareness box for further consideration.

Thanks for any / all input.

Cheers
RicB