All right. All right. Two stories in one day: This one is less embelished than the last one. I was there, and, once again, truth is stranger than fiction. At one of the major concert venues in Los Angeles, there was a "general director" type who, about 25 years ago was in the middle of his nearly 30 years tenure at that hall. He was of the old, old, old School - anything you could do, he could do better. The problem was, he was almost always right. Well, in the fullness of time, it came to pass that there was (yet another) hectic rehearsal and performance schedule over a Thursday to Sunday period. Full acoustic shell in and out several times. Same thing with a set of sets for "The Bassarids" by Hans Werner Henze. And, yes, a piano concerto with orchestra. Saturday afternoon, before the symphony dress rehearsal, was a full stage change. Eveyone was running, literally, everywhere. Even the piano tuner was busily tuning the several pianos used. As the concert grand was being wheeled into position - just ahead of the shell sections, mind you - Jim (we'll call him) decided that the four people moving the piano were going way too slowly. He sent them over to assist the shell crew, and began pushing the piano downstage center by himself; turning around and shouting directions to various stage crew members as he went. Do you remember the opera? (Do you remember Albrecht?) Yep. You got it. Before any of the horrified onlookers, yours truly included, could utter a sound, the toe end on the piano went over the lip of the pit; and the piano fell, lid down, onto the lowered section of the stage, 30 feet below. The sound was - - words fail - - amazing. Fortunately, there was another piano, and a forgiving artist. I laughed for weeks. The piano, by the bye, was locally rebuilt and is still the house piano of a well known Steinway artist. (A virtual chocolate chip cookie for the person correctly identifying Albrecht. A virtual chocolate chip cookie, AND an RC Cola for the person correctly identifying who made that question famous.) Have a great weekend. Horace At 07:23 PM 1/31/97 -0600, you wrote: >Hi all, > >Had a really close call at an work last year. Someone tried to use a fork >lift under the carriage of a D. It bent the carriage and the piano nearly >fell. I was not in attendance to diswade them. > >I would recommend a ramp that can be "knocked down" quickly and easily. > >At 10:26 AM 1/31/97 -0500, you wrote: >>Dear List: >> >>Someone visiting our Web page asked us the following question: >> >> "For a concert series that we host every summer, our Stienway must be >>moved a great deal. I'm wondering if there is a way to move our piano >>up onto the stage, a 3 ft. lift, using a jack or pully type system >>instead of brute man power. Do you know of any system on the market >>that may help us?" >> >>We thought that you might know of something that would do the trick. >> >>Yours, >>STEINWAY & SONS >> >>Stephen K. Dove >> >> >> >> >> >> >Regards, Don Rose (drose@dlcwest.com) > > > Horace Greeley "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history" - George Bernard Shaw Stanford University email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu voice mail: 415.725.9062 LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627
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