Knabe was once the official piano of the Metropolitan Opera, for good reason, not only cost. In the 19th century Erard and Pleyel each had passionate advocates, and a lot of music was composed with one or the other in mind, neither of them sounding anything like the modern concert standard or like a contemporary Bechstein, say. To my mind the loss of national characteristics through homogenization is sad. At least the Wiener Klangstil is still distinctive, not only among pianos. Laurence I would think there is a pretty large market for a piano that could be described, as the Knabe once was, as a piano especially suitable for accompanying voice, as one example. I visited a French pianist (in France) a few years ago, and she was very clear that her Gaveau was suitable for certain music, but only the Pleyel should be used for other pieces. Fred Sturm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110220/69c87389/attachment-0001.htm>
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