Jim, Does that mean all the action, keys,keytops, bushings, dampers and damper actions, soundboard, bridges, etc, is original??? Just restringing means a lot more work involved! I might be interested if all has been rebuilt., otherwise .....it's questionable, but probably a great potential great instrument. Got any pics? Thanks Paul Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu> Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 03/03/2009 04:15 PM Please respond to caut at ptg.org To "caut at ptg.org" <caut at ptg.org> cc Subject [CAUT] 5 Browns - D for sale All, I just got this from the father of the “5 Browns”. If you aren’t familiar with them they are two brothers and three sisters who play concerts around the world. I won’t comment on what is said below, (He just asked me to post it, and I’ve never seen the piano) but here it is… <<< Keith Brown here, father of The 5 Browns, the Steinway artists who all went to Juilliard and now record for Sony and tour world wide together. With the last of the five about to get married and all of them living on their own now with their own smaller Steinways, we have reluctantly decided to sell our beloved Model D that we have had in our home since 2001. This is a VERY special piano, even when compared to other Ds and would make a superb acquisition for any university or concert hall given its AMAZING sound, even in the picky opinions of our five concert/recording artists! Here's the rundown: The piano was picked out specially at the Steinway factory when new in 1939 by world famous concert artist, Ignacy Paderewski, for his upcoming Madison Square Garden Concert, but he had a stroke and never performed the concert, dying a year or two later. The piano was purchased by a music loving family associated with the Garden and passed down two generations. Our family purchased it from their grandson who played it regularly but sadly no longer had space to continue to keep it. Most concert grand Steinways from the Prewar "Golden Era" have been beat up and used up in concert halls across the country and have long since been rebuilt. Unfortunately, those rebuilt pianos turn out to be only as good as the rebuilder, many of whom just make it look pretty again (often to make a quick buck on the resale), but the piano is never as good as it was when it left the factory, having been hand assembled by some of the greatest craftsmen in the world, and at a time when "hand built" and "quality" had a completely different meaning than they do today. Those pianos lose that amazing ring and special tone that the ones built in the Golden Era were universally known for. For this reason, I looked far and wide for several years for a concert grand that had been used in a home rather than a concert hall, and one which had not been rebuilt or restored, nor requiring such. I know, a needle in what is a rather rare haystack in the first place, a haystack of Steinway Ds! You can only guess my excitement when I found this special piano, Serial # 295063, in 100% original condition, even down to the finish, showing only slight age. The only thing we changed after purchasing the piano was to replace the original strings for a set of new Steinway strings to continue to give it that powerful sustaining ring and tone that it had when it was new so that when our five kids returned from Juilliard for the summers, they would be in heaven while practicing in the beautiful mountain canyon where we live. It still has its original hammers, ivory keys, and flawless soundboard, and plays and sounds like a brand new $107,000 new D only dreams of. Our price is less than half that of new at a reasonable $45,000. Obviously, we are reluctant to let this piano go, but since Lisa only plays a little and I not at all, we decided it needs to go somewhere where it can fulfill the measure of its creation. Unfortunately, it's just too big and expensive for our 5 newlywed children, and we are just average people financially, without the ability to hold it for them. It's sad because where could we possibly find another like this? It's truly a rare find and absolutely irreplaceable. So who's the lucky one?! You can reach me at 801-232-095 if you have questions. Thanks. Keith Brown >>> Jim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090303/89dbc47d/attachment-0001.html>
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