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

Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu
Wed Feb 23 20:33:38 MST 2011


On Feb 23, 2011, at 10:17 AM, Ron Nossaman wrote:

>> 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.


	Your words describing it sound quite compelling, but the proof is in  
the pudding: do those instruments actually meet acceptance in the  
concert hall? Do pianists want to play them? Or is it that they are  
all wrong, don't know what's good for them, and need to be re-educated  
into how to listen to and respond to a piano? In which case, I'd say  
it is a lost cause - at least for the concert hall. So the question I  
have for you is, where is there such an instrument in a concert hall,  
an instrument that is in demand compared to other available  
instruments, chosen at least a good portion of the time by resident  
and visiting artists? From what I have heard, the answer is no (with  
the probable exception of Ron Overs' instruments in Australia - but I  
think that is a different animal, from my experience playing the ones  
he brought to Reno and Rochester).
	
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm



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