Bill Ballard wrote: > > > I heard Franz Mohr say, in a small group, that before Horowitz's > performance piano was reclaimed by the factory, he removed the shanks > and hammers. They're in a box in his closet, but I don't think he's > eager to show them off. > > What I never understood was what gave Steinway the right to reclaim the thing and wreck it in the first place ? Was it THEIR piano or was it Horowitz's ? Did they buy it back ? Was it given to them ? What was the deal ? Course given the fact that Steinway came to own the piano again, they are certainly free to turn it into whatever they want to, tho the fact remains that there is really nothing left to illustrate how this man went about making music on his instrument. From a purely historical point of view, they should have maintained the instrument in exactly the manner Horowitz himself prefered it, or they should at least drop any pretenses of this instrument representing Horwowitz and his music. This is sort of like taking an old piano forte from 1830, fitting it with a Yamaha action, and rescaling it with modern wire complete with a beefed up framework to hold more tension, and calling it representative of the time period ! RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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