Went to see Joshua Bell last night. Very lovely performance without a doubt. Major WOW! The piano. Got some questions. I have tuned pianos for rather minor- type concerts (college stages, a few "pop stars", etc.), but never truly "prepped" a piano for a high-end pianist. I have very little exposure to nice pianos - and especially excellent pianos that are well prepared. Sam Haywood played with Joshua - just the two. They played Brahms Sonata #2 in A Major, Op.100; Schubert Fantasy in C Major, Op.159, D. 934; Grieg Sonata #2 in G Major, Op.13, and then two pieces that were not on the program - something very lovely by a Finnish composer and then a Virtuoso piece often played by Pagnini (sp?) - kinda of a romantic period Jimi Hendrix kind of thing - really enjoyed that! Anyway, back to the piano. S&S D. I don't know anything else about it other than it had a lid and was black. Unless the piano is way out of tune, when someone is playing a piece with lots of quick notes, I can't really tell much about the tuning. When individual notes are played slowly, I could certainly hear that the unisons were pretty darn nice - well, perfect as far as I could tell. John Philips did whatever tuning and prep work was done (I am presuming this because he was the tech to did the touchup at intermission - pretty safe assumption, yes?) John Philips is generally regarded as the old guard highest caliber piano technician and concert technician in the Tampa Bay area for decades. My understanding is that he does most if not all of the piano prep for the Florida Orchestra, among others. Pretty safe to say I think that he is pretty darn top-notch. And no, he did not use an ETD during intermission tuning touchup! I really didn't hear him doing anything with intervals, so I think he was just touching up unisons. BTW, I was in the cheap seats - second from last row at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. FWIW, the last row at Eckert has better acoustics that the best row at most other venues. It is well known very very nice acoustics. The piano sounded to me dull and lifeless. Tone was monotone - not Kodachrome-tone. Don't know if that was the piano, my ears, the acoustics where I sat, or what. Haywood would play softly and the piano was very mellow, if not a bit mushy. And then I would see his hair fly up, his arms flail, and his body bounce a bit from the seat - and the piano cord struck was a bit louder for sure, but the tone seemed to stay the same - dull lifeless, mellow, if not a bit mushy. I was wondering if a piano might be purposely voiced in such a manner for a concert such as this - so that the piano doesn't overpower or take the focus away from the violist. I really don't think it was my ears or the acoustics because Joshua's violin was consistently very clear, focused and Kodachrome-tone - full of color - soft, mellow delicate, then bright and powerful and everything in between. Is voicing the piano down ever done for a concert like this? Could that explain why the piano sounded to me the way it did? Or have I just been hearing to many Yamaha C3s and C7s? Oh yeah, and too many 1948 Gulbranson spinets and the such? Another thing. Again, don't know if this was me, my ears, my prejudices, the acoustics, my seat, the ladies hat in front of me, or what, but when John was trying to clean up unisons in the high treble at intermission - at least the entire uppermost octave, as he turned his lever I heard the very fast beating, then slower beating and it seemed like pretty much every note was cleaned up to where it sounded like two trash can lids being banged together - well, different sized lids for different notes, but all distorted, presumably with false beats. Sounded like crap. You know, like 99% of the pianos out there. I don't know where this piano was from - whether Ruth Eckert Hall owns it, or the Florida Orchestra, or whether it was on loan/rent from the local S&S dealer (that's my suspicion, but I have no concrete reason to think that). Again, keeping in mind that I have NEVER tuned/prepped a piano for anyone anywhere near the caliber of the musicians address here, and assuming I am correct in my perception that the upper treble was littered with false beats, and mix into that if the piano was not purposely voiced way down and that the piano really was a dull lifeless piano - is such a poor excuse for a high performance piano like this really ever found acceptable for musicians like these? Do they just bear with it? Or would that be so unusual that the poor tone and false beats were likely just the acoustics or me? Thanks for reading! I think that it would be fascinating to tune/prep fine pianos for musicians like these - man, what challenge! And potentially, how rewarding! My hat is off to you tech who do this kind of work! Terry Farrell
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