If there's one thing I hate, it's pretentious
people using these fine
instruments for furniture. Putting
vases that are pronounced "vahse" and picture frames on top and
never tuning it or god forbid actually
play it.
The
description reads, "A piano designed for spacious homes, smaller recital halls, auditoriums and broadcasting recording or
professional studios."
1
I can't say much about it besides the fact that it feels right over the entire range. Generally (since each piano sounds different), it's a piano that offers the most quality range and
full tone for the price. The soundboard is created like the soundboard of
violins to give a free and even response through the entire scale-- it's tapered and double crowned to give a more homogenous sound.
A Steinway is generally better than sex, or at least a Bosendorfer.
I've used this piano at
home since I was five years old-- my piano
teacher also had one-- they had one at
CMU (where I studied music during my
youth) and
Simon's Rock (in Kellogg), but now at
NYU I can't get access-- and gradually stopped playing. But damn.. there's nothing on god's green earth that reflects the sheer
balls of Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 in D minor better than a Steinway B.
When I visit my
childhood home three or four times a year, I wistfully wander over to the piano, sit down, and draw a little
Chopin from the unused keys. Still faithfully tuned with the changes of the
seasons but somehow, there's something unexplicably sad and humbling about the slight stiffening of the leather on the seat and the thin patina of
dust on the legs, as if it
knows...
It helps me remember a time long past, one I've almost forgotten. Remember when I used to attend the
College of Fine Arts? When I could sit down after recitals in the cool green marble halls outside of
Carnegie Music Hall and hear the music resonate through the passages and inside my head.
The days of
idle discipline of 3 hours of
practice a day. Then, I dreamt of living a different
New York-- the New York of Julliard and Carnegie Hall rather than the
Wall Street and Greenwich Village where I now live.
Music Room Grand - Model B.
Length - 6'10-1/2"
Width - 58"
Weight - 760 pounds
Sticker Price - $60,000
1. www.steinway.com