<HTML>In a message dated 3/12/0= 2 7:10:29 PM Central Standard Time, dm.porritt@verizon.net (David M. Porritt= ) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Play Rechmaninoff's Prelude= in C# minor without a sostenuto.  Yes, I think the audience would be able to tell</BLOCKQUOTE>. I'm not sure about this, maybe only the people who know it's supposed to= be that way. I went to a recital last Friday night where Andrās Schiff played a Bos= endorfer Imperial Concert Grand.  It was tuned in ET with the octaves o= verly stretched.  To me, everything sounded out of tune.  He playe= d Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, the first movement with the damper pedal dow= n the whole way through.  I could hardly believe it.  At first, I = thought it must have been stuck but I saw his foot nailed to it.  It so= unded terrible, the way someone who didn't know how to use the pedal would p= lay it. I don't know how many of the audience could tell but he did receive a st= anding ovation (but I surely didn't stand up except to leave).  Now, pe= rhaps, the Broadwood piano of Beethoven's day did not have as long of a sust= ain and this may have worked.  The Bosendorfer did have one of the rich= est lowest registers I have ever heard and very good sustain. Anybody have any ideas on why an artist of his supposed caliber would do= this? Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l= b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> </HTML>