[pianotech] Earl Wild and his choise of pianos

[Thomas Martin]

Hello all,  I don't normally post to the list but, I think I can clear this up for you...  I wrote to Michael Rolland David in 2008 and requested an autographed photo and this email is a response Mr Davis sent me when I asked him why he Usually played Baldwins... .  I don't think he'd mind me sharing it with the piano tech list... 
Thomas M

--- On Thu, 9/18/08, Michael Rolland Davis <mrdavisprod at sprintmail.com> wrote:


From: Michael Rolland Davis <mrdavisprod at sprintmail.com>
Subject: Re: Earl Wild (autograph?)
To: flibberti.gibbet at yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008, 1:14 AM



Hi Tom,
 
    Earl first began playing the Baldwin piano in the late 40s.  He was a Steinway artist up until then.  He played a concerto with the Baltimore Symphony in their outdoor theatre and Steinway sent him a terrible piano.  Steinway sent it to the venue but Earl had to pay for the hire!  Great company huh!!  Well he hated the piano and the review said that he didn't play very loud and the tone was not good!!  All the problems he had with the piano but critics never consider that fact before they kill a performance!!
    When Earl was back in New York he went into the Steinway offices on 57th Street and complained bitterly.  They told him that Rubinstein had used that piano but that didn't make Earl feel any better and he told them to take their pianos and shove it!
   The next day a friend of Earl's who worked at Steinway Pianos called him to say that he was away when he had his scene in the office but he heard about it.  He then said that Rubinstein had indeed used that same piano recently and you could hear him screaming all the way to 6th Ave.!!!
   Earl then went to the Baldwin company and they were please to accept him as an artist.
   Earl stopped playing the Baldwin's because they went bankrupt in 2000 and stopped making concert grand pianos.  They were eventually sold to Gibson guitar but they no longer make concert grands - just smaller pianos.  
   Kawai heard about the demise of Baldwin and offered their services to Earl.  They sent two pianos to Columbus for him to try out and he loved the Shigeru (better than the regular Kawai concert grand).  He's recorded with and performed on Shigeru Kawai EX Concert Grands the last seven years.
   That's the story.  I'll get your photo to you soon.
 
   All the best,
 
   Michael


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100129/29f11aba/attachment.htm>