<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>List,
<BR>
<BR>I attended the recital last night of Radoslav Kvapil who played an entire
<BR>evening of 19th Century Romantic works on a Steinway D tuned in Romieu's 1/7
<BR>Comma Meantone. I'd say this, the crowd was pleased, he got a standing
<BR>ovation and played a terrific encore piece.
<BR>
<BR>No mention nor announcement was ever made about the way the piano was tuned.
<BR>Mr. Farley says that if you do that, if you put a label on it, that's what
<BR>ruins it and what invites attacks from people who only want the modern piano
<BR>to be tuned in ET.
<BR>
<BR>He, in fact, has a number of CD's that he has made in 1/7 Comma Meantone and
<BR>other HT's. I encouraged him to post something on this List about all that's
<BR>available and the ordering and contact information. He probably won't do it
<BR>though because he already knows what can happen. For all of those who would
<BR>be interested, it's just too bad because there are the few who will
<BR>deliberately make an issue out of it and cause trouble for his business.
<BR>Call it paranoia if you like, but I know from personal experinces repeated
<BR>many, many times over that there is a real basis for his trepidation.
<BR>
<BR>The 1/7 Comma Meantone is not for everybody, for sure. There is some
<BR>extraordinary beauty that comes from the music that can't be heard any other
<BR>way but of course, there is also some occasional harshness that can be
<BR>offensive to some people's taste. If you want the good side of it, you have
<BR>to take the bad (if you can call it that) along with it. So, for this
<BR>reason, many just stick to ET and will never really hear how beautiful a
<BR>piano can sound because they don't want to hear the rough edges.
<BR>
<BR>The idea that there is no one temperament "better" than the other really did
<BR>reveal itself to me last night. I know that with the EBVT I tune, I can get
<BR>some of what I heard last night that is so much nicer than ET but really,
<BR>just a hint of it. But what I can also do is avoid some of the harshness
<BR>that will cause some people to go absolutely ballistic.
<BR>
<BR>I hope Tim does offer his CD's for sale by making a post but if he does, he
<BR>probably won't give any information about temperament and if he doesn't,
<BR>you'll know why. If you're interested enough, however, you can try to
<BR>contact his business on your own. He's in the directory.
<BR>
<BR>Bill Bremmer RPT
<BR>Madison, Wisconsin</FONT></HTML>