<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Congratulations, Dale. A truly unforgettable transcendent experience. To see a piano you lived with for so long and worked on so hard fulfill its role so splendidly is as good as it gets. For me, yesterday was very special as well, though with a smaller footprint. Antonio Pompa-Baldi, who played here two years running, with the OSU Symphony and the piano series, happened to have an engagement in Eugene, and was invited to play in a local church series. The church has a Steinway A, serial # about 250xxx, which was rebuilt by Steve Ganz in Portland about ten years ago. It has a tone so rich one thinks of plum pudding or other holiday foods one doesn't dare eat. Antonio liked the piano well enough that he replaced the Hummel sonata he was going to play with the Chopin Second Sonata. Second half was Liszt, including a lot of the Annees de Pelerinage -- Suisse. When I checked with him before the concert, he said the piano had no issues. It needed nothing. He's looking well, and it was such a pleasure to hear him play again. Such incredible strong musicality, complete technical mastery, and delicacy of thought and execution. Susan Kline On 5/21/2012 12:39 PM, Dale Erwin wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:8CF05A08F4D614F-1E54-39EE9@webmail-d019.sysops.aol.com" type="cite"> It had pictures but it didn't get thru so maybe later <div style="clear:both">Dale Erwin... RPT Mason & Hamlin/Steinway/U.S pianos <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.Erwinspiano.com">www.Erwinspiano.com</a> 209-577-8397 <tt><tt>     </tt></tt> </div>   I admit this a bit of a sentimental journey but this is part and parcel of our work and a part we may need more of. <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black"> <div id="AOLMsgPart_2_e683fa90-e2c8-4e3f-aa6e-09245fd4b7e3">   Many of you may remember the 1928 D that I took to the rebuilders Gallery in Rochester  N.Y. 2006 & Los Angeles,Sacramento,Anaheim later. I know many people enjoyed that instrument and for me it was a very happy outcome tonally. <div> </div>  My Personal Favorite D to Date. Its shop name was "Big Foot', AS it had such a big footprint in the shop for soooo long. For many reasons it was rebuilding process scattered over about 5 years.    After parading it here and there to conventions it finally sold about 4 years ago to the Arkely center for the arts, a 1920 Theater restored by a local family in Eureka on the remote North Calif. coast. It was gratifying to place this beast in a place that was acoustically the pianos equal, a really great space. The center is the hub of culture in the region and the piano used by the symphony and others. My friend and consummate technician Greg Granoff looks after the beast now with great care. He is also the head tech for Humboldt state. <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black"> <div id="AOLMsgPart_1_fcd4d131-eea6-4f14-bf93-6a3c1916a994"> <div>  I had not seen/heard the piano since I delivered it 4 yrs ago. I've been waiting for the right concerto at the right moment to make the trek up there to see and hear this piano in concert in this space.  So I was  in Eureka Ca. over the weekend, about 300 mile drive from Modesto, to hear...Bigfoot....  A young local talent Ryan McAvoy McCullough came back to the area to perform the Rachmaninoff 3 thd piano concerto. Fantastic acoustics, amazing young pianist,...He was near flawless. The performance  gripped me on so many emotional levels. It was similar to seeing one of your children after a long absence. Someones voice you know and love so well speaking to you again. The sound in the building, the way he bonded to the keyboard & the nuance of tone coming from the Instrument was truly a culminating moment in my ears and life. The Beast has become the Black beauty! </div> <div>   What a journey that piano has been in my life.   The piano/pianist sounded absolutely stellar. Best performance I,ve ever heard on my work. </div> <div>I'm on cloud nine this am. Beautiful day in that coastal town. Trix, Jacob and Sara all here.... Life is good.</div> <div>Dale</div> <div>Aka...tone warrior :) </div> <div style="clear:both">Dale Erwin... RPT Mason & Hamlin/Steinway/U.S pianos <a moz-do-not-send="true" target="_blank" href="http://www.Erwinspiano.com">www.Erwinspiano.com</a> 209-577-8397 <tt><tt>     </tt></tt> </div> </div> </div> </div>  </div> </blockquote> </body> </html>