[pianotech] Joshua Bell - Piano Prep

[Alan Eder]

Hi Terry,


I speculate about the piano maybe purposely being prepped to  
not overpower or take focus away from the violist 

Most PTG conventions I have attended have featured a performance on a Steinway D.  Typically, the instrument comes from a local dealership, and techs from NY have made the most of their limited time to brighten up the voicing.  Without doing so, the kind of sound you described would be pretty much it.  Hardly a good idea for a solo piano recital (or, in my opinion, much else).


Alan E.


-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Sun, Feb 6, 2011 5:04 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Joshua Bell - Piano Prep


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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