Thanks for the backup and faith Keith, and maybe in some way I erred in stating someone's name (does the PTG have some thing about this like the fee-discussion thing?). But it you re-read my post, I have absolutely ZERO negative to say about "the technician" who prepped the piano. I speculate about the piano maybe purposely being prepped to not overpower or take focus away from the violist - that would require a skilled technician. I talk about perceived numerous false beats in the high treble - and identify them as such - not poor tuning work, but rather a piano that has defects. In fact, with regard to his tuning performance on this particular piano for this particular evening, I stated: "I could certainly hear that the unisons were pretty darn nice - well, perfect as far as I could tell." What on earth is negative with that? I only meant to compliment his work in general AND his work this evening. And I even threw in a generalization: "Pretty safe to say I think that he is pretty darn top-notch." I did say: "The piano sounded to me dull and lifeless." That's is the PIANO, not any technicians work. I do realize that a piano technician COULD do work to a nice sounding piano and make it sound that way - but I made no statement that this piano technician do anything of the sort on his own. A piano can sound that way all by itself by having a dead soundboard of poorly matched hammers, etc. - nothing to do with the evening's piano prep. Again, I stated: "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." IF such work was actually done, IMHO, it would require a piano technician of great skill and experience to know how to tone down a piano in such a manner and to know exactly how much to do it. And I also added tons of caveats: "Don't know if that was the piano, my ears, the acoustics where I sat, or what." Maybe the piano sounded great and I have too much wax in my ears! And beyond that I NEVER made one negative statement regarding the piano technician or his work on this piano. I just re-read my post and I sure don't see anything of the sort there. And I surely didn't mean to if it's just my eyes that aren't seeing it. Maybe I am blind and lack perception. Is it me? I meant to complement the piano tech's work, ask about whether a piano would ever purposely be voiced to sound like I perceived it, and qualify everything by identifying that I am not any sort of expert at this kind of work and that maybe my ears, or the acoustics, or anything else may have influenced my perception. I scrutinized the piano. I scrutinized the acoustics. I scrutinized my lack of knowledge and experience in this area. I scrutinized decisions made by the "powers to be" about how to direct the piano prep (not the tech - maybe Joshua Bell directs piano prep to tone the piano down - I don't know - that's why I'm asking!). I did not scrutinize the piano technician or his work. I did however make a number of statements regarding the tech's superior skills and experience, etc., etc. I most certainly did not knowingly or intentionally make one single disparaging remark or observation regarding the piano technician's skills, performance, end product or anything else. Or am I totally missing something here? All respect for the subject piano technician and everyone else, Terry Farrell On Feb 6, 2011, at 12:24 PM, Mr. Mac's wrote: > > On Feb 6, 2011, at 11:12 AM, Ryan Sowers wrote: > >> Your story was very interesting but I feel uncomfortable that you >> have scrutinized a fellow-technician's work in a negative manner on >> a public forum that has thousands of members. If I had been the >> technician in question I would be angry and hurt. I mean this in as >> friendly way as possible towards you. I believe you had no ill >> intentions, and are genuinely interested in discussing concert prep. >> >> In these situations I recommend keeping the concert and the >> technician anonymous to avoid any bad feelings. Then everyone could >> feel comfortable discussing the topic. :) > > Ryan, > > He was just sharing what he experienced, > and in his enthusiasm, he mentioned someone's name. > > An oversight, or error in judgement, I suspect. > Or put in another way from long ago, > "A slip between the cup and the lip." > > I, too, have done likewise in the past, > more than I care to share, or bring to remembrance. > > Keith
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