[CAUT] Should performers rule? (Was Lacquered hammers)

[Ron Nossaman]

On 2/22/2011 10:59 PM, Fred Sturm wrote:

> I wasn't meaning they were necessarily "pounders," but that they lacked
> the nuanced control of touch of an accomplished, professional level
> pianist.

I've had professional level pianists play my rebuilds. No one in my 
presence has ever complained about the lack of distortion at high attack 
levels, and some of them took it as far as they could. This has only 
come up on one of my instruments after delivery, and it was indeed a D.


> All of which is fine, and I have no problem whatsoever with the practice
> of designing and building pianos to meet that demand and need.

What I've read indicates different.


> OTOH, I
> think it is delusional to suppose that such standards and criteria (in
> shorthand, a limited spectrum with a relatively shallow voicing gradient
> and a leveled off top) will meet acceptance in the concert hall.

You still don't seem to get it. The top end doesn't "level off". A broad 
spectrum, I think broader than is available with the standard borderline 
CC board, with a top end that doesn't degenerate into distorted garbage 
(color) at high attack levels, and a pianissimo that most folks wouldn't 
have thought possible is, I think, progress.


> I've seen/heard that in Ron Overs' pianos, for
> instance. (And I don't really mean to be addressing you, Ron N,
> personally, as I have very little personal experience with your
> instruments, and really don't have enough to go on to form a judgment).

Yet this doesn't prevent you from making general condemnations of 
redesign. I noticed Ron O's piano(s) couldn't be over driven into 
garbage any more than mine could. I wonder if he's aware he's building 
sub standard instruments, not adequate to the artistic needs of top 
level professional pianists. I'm sure he would find this quite instructive.

But then that wasn't a 9' instrument, either in Reno, or Rochester. Do 
all 9' pianos of all makes drive into chaos at the top end of the 
dynamic range? That would be news to me, and I'd like to see that 
demonstrated. I'd think an absolutely necessary "feature" such as this 
would be coveted, advertised in the brochures, splashed wide on the web 
page, and emulated by anyone aspiring to greatness.

Or perhaps it's a version of the tendency to keep limping long after the 
foot has finally healed, because it's become habit.
Ron N