Yes.... and agreed. The experience that period keyboards provide can be a huge revelation with great insight. That's why we do it, and love them. I'm off to prep for a recording on our Reiger fortepiano this morning. I don't mean or want to provoke, but having said that, I also feel that can be to taken to mean more than it does. I have not seen a single bit of evidence anywhere, or any suggestion, that even one of these great composers did not welcome advances of the instrument. Do you not agree that given the choice any one of them would jump at the modern concert Steinway? Beethoven especially, and Lizst. On some level I suppose that becomes a moot point, but my instinct says they might actually look back and call us misguided. :). The instrument is the tool, not the essence. Perhaps we can at least agree that this is a complicated art with much mystery. best, Dennis Johnson St. Olaf College _______________ On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 8:39 PM, Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu> wrote: > On Jan 28, 2010, at 9:44 AM, reggaepass at aol.com wrote: > > In my experience, it's remarkable how much they sound like modern > instruments. The biggest changes are back around 1840 - 1860. After that, > they sound like our pianos, more or less. > > > Yes, this is certainly the case. The author of the above quote (Alan's > anonymous MDS) was writing about playing the Liszt pianos in Vienna, which > were from the later parts of his life, and those do approach the modern > instrument fairly closely in a relative sense. But Liszt's career was from > 1830-1885 or so, so he was writing and playing before the beginning of that > period of 1840-60 when the big changes happened. That's when he made his > reputation. So was Chopin, and both learned, as boys, on instruments from > the 1815-1830 period. > We think of Liszt and Chopin as defining the sound of the piano. But their > experience was with a very different instrument (especially Chopin, who > didn't live to see the changes that happened in Liszt's time). Not to say > that their music should always be played on the historically accurate > instrument, but I think it can be a revelation, as much as for Beethoven or > Mozart, especially for the pianist feeling the difference in action, and > hearing the different tonal response to the technique. It suggests new ways > of hearing and different approaches to interpretation, which is always a > good thing. > For the audience, it may or may not be as revelatory, depending how well > the pianist in question has adapted to the piano in question - not to > mention expectations from years of hearing something far different. > > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100129/184ee5ca/attachment-0001.htm>
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