Articles on the "Horowitz" Steinway touch weight

[Richard Adkins]

List:
  Can anyone confirm this?Have any of you had a close up examination
of this piano? (Mike Mohr?)

In the May/June '96 Clavier Walden Hughes writes:

   "Horowitz often told his technician that the keys should go down if
he simply blew on them. To achieve this,{Franz}  Mohr found it
necessary to file down the sizes of the hammers. Horowitz required a
precisely 44 grams of key resistance, but full-size hammers were too
heavy for an action of this gram-weight: the average Steinway is
weighted to approximately 50-55 grams....

>>>>>>>
I think what he says further on to be true for all concert instruments...

{Later in the article he writes: "before anyone draws the obvious
conclusion that piano manufacturers should redesign all pianos to
conform to Horowitz's conception, the tradeoffs should be noted.
In order to maintain the full dynamic range with such bright hammers,
especially at the lower dynamic levels, the hammers will have to be
maintained frequently, entainling much expensive work by a first-rate
piano technician......}

Rich Adkins
Coe College Music Dept.