Power Plant Shut -- to Tune Piano

John Musselwhite john@musselwhite.com
Fri, 28 May 2004 10:16:01 -0600


Power Plant Shut -- to Tune Piano
1 hour, 23 minutes ago
OSLO (Reuters) - One of the Nordic region's biggest power stations shut 
Friday to let an expert tune a grand piano for a concert undisturbed by the 
hum of huge hydroelectric generators.
"When you put a big piano in there, you also need to tune it, and that is 
very difficult if the machines are running," said Tron Engebrethsen, senior 
vice president at Norwegian power company Statkraft.

The generators will be switched back on after Friday evening's concert 
which is being staged in an enormous underground hall at the 1,120-megawatt 
Sima power plant.

The hall, built in a rock cavern inside a mountain in the scenic Hardanger 
fjord in western Norway, is renowned for its acoustics.
Engebrethsen said a concert was held at the plant about once a year, but it 
was the first time they had shut down production to tune a piano.
The program includes music from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and Stravinsky's 
"Agon."

The generators, which will be down for nine hours, will be switched back on 
at 2200 local time.

(from Yahoo.com)




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