EXTREMELY large upright

[Stephen Airy]

At 08:04 AM 11/18/00 +0000, you wrote:
>How about an upright that is 9.84' high and weighs well over two 
>tons?  It's called a "Klavins" after its inventor, Davids Klavins of Bonn, 
>Germany.
>(Interestingly the German word for upright piano is Klavier.)
>
>It is straight strung, has one continuous bridge, a Renner upright action 
>and keyboard, and a concert hall constructed specifically for it.  The 
>pianist climbs a flight of stairs to a balcony where he sits at the 
>keyboard, the action directly in front of him.  Were you to photograph 
>only the portion of the instrument above the balcony, you might almost 
>think you were looking at only a very large upright.  But beneath the 
>balcony you see another five feet or so of strings, soundboard, bridge, 
>plate...
>
>I have a CD of Michael Ponti playing Mussorgskij, Chopin and Liszt on it.
>The sound is awesome.  When I first heard it, I did not know what 
>instrument was being played and at first thought it might be a piano, but 
>certainly not like any piano I had ever heard before.  The bass is huge.
>
>Michael Ponti is quoted as saying "The unique size of the piano has an 
>overwhelming effect on me.  When I sit at the Klavins and play, it seems 
>incomparably more impressive than anything I have ever experienced before."
>
>There is a whole page in the CD booklet about what he was trying to 
>accomplish with the instrument.  I believe I was told that he made the 
>instrument as his project for his German Klavierbauer certification.
>
>Too bad I can't send some kind of music attachment!

If you can, you can email it to me privately. :)


>Diane
>
>Diane Hofstetter
>245-M Mount Hermon Rd.
>Scotts Valley, CA 95066
>ph  831-438-6222
>fax 831-430-9741
>dianepianotuner@hotmail.com
>
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