Back from Amsterdam

[antares]

I would like to add that Richard Brekne very much likes Duvel beer (a 
heavy Belgian beer called 'Devil's' beer ), has the rare genuine talent 
to become a great voicing technician, taught us in exchange a lot about 
weights and action metrology, and on top of that has a great sense of 
humor.

Santé, Richard!

your friend
André oorebeek



On 30-apr-04, at 22:15, Richard Brekne wrote:

> Hi folks
>
> Just got back yesterday from a 4 day visit with Andre in Amsterdam 
> where we exchanged a bit of experience and expertise. Andre is by far 
> the finest voicing teacher I could ever have hoped to run into, and we 
> had a great time working in his shop and enjoying each others company 
> in the evening. He is a great cook too by the way.
> When I got there on Monday he had an older C3 set up and ready to 
> go... nicely regulated... brand new Wurzen hammers by Renner, and he 
> simply sat me down in front of it and told me to voice it for him.... 
> and by and large he insisted on  me doing nearly all the work, and 
> making nearly all the decisions along the way.  The object here was to 
> create as beautiful and yet powerfull a sound as possible... to 
> attempt a concert level voicing on a small C3, so there was no fooling 
> around or cutting corners... no compromises allowed.  We conversed a 
> good deal along the way... comparing what each of us thought should be 
> done next... and all the while he had this uncanny nack for prodding 
> my ears to notice the slightest nuances in sounds.  I was encouraged 
> to try out my own sound ideas... (within reason of course) and he used 
> any and all things I did to show me how one can correct for errors... 
> or shift directions if one finds one has a change of heart along the 
> way.
> I was struck several times during my stay there with the fact that so 
> very very many a young technician starts off his / her career and many 
> of these are individuals with talent and passion, and you just know 
> they will spend their lives working on and learning about pianos..... 
> and tragically they almost never get a chance to get this kind of 
> training. I also was struck by the strongest of desires that I should 
> have learned this stuff years ago.  You can be a great tuner, but if 
> you cant really build tone on the level these few can.... then you are 
> quite limited actually to where you can go in your career.. and what 
> you can do with what you know.  But if you can build this kind of 
> tone......  well life and work becomes far more interesting and 
> enjoyable.
>
> Andre is a true master of tone building... make no mistake about it.  
> I've heard the usual erten number of voicing classes, and guys who do 
> classes, all the variants you can ask for.... but once in a while you 
> run into a piano that quite obviously has been treated by somebody 
> special. It speaks so obviously in testimony of that masters hands.  
> Andre is one of these guys. I was really quite blown away with what he 
> could show me... what he could do... what he knows, what he could pry 
> out of me.
>
> And of top of all that... grin... he's one of the truly nice guys of 
> our trade. Really hospitable, warm and genuinely freindly.
>
> Just wanted to publicly thank my freind for a wonderful  time in 
> Amsterdam
>
> Cheers
>
> RicB.
>
> By the way... this old C3 came out realllllly great.  Some interesting 
> notes for builders.... it had the early Yamaha version of the 
> <<Steinway Tone Resonator>> or <<Bell>>... whatever you want to call 
> it, a very prominant cutoff bar to limit the size of the soundboard 
> quite a large bit.... and some strange beam bracing  I've not noticed 
> / encountered before.... evidently meant to stabilize the beams cross 
> directionally... tho perhaps those in the know about such matters can 
> offer a better purpose for these.  This thing sounded really 
> better...by a long shot....  then alot of new C3's I've run into 
> lately.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>
friendly greetings
from
André Oorebeek

Amsterdam -
The Netherlands

0031-20-6237357
0645-492389
0031-75-6226878
www.concertpianoservice.nl
www.grandpiano.nl

"where music is, no harm can be"