Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum The sound of Franz Liszt's Chickering piano.

Hello, everyone,

I recently found an interesting (if not high-quality) recording of Liszt's Chickering piano.





(Pictures by J.P. Dalbera)

The serial number of this piano seems to be 50,080, and it was made in 1879 especially for Franz Liszt. This piano (first upper picture) and another very beautiful 1867 Chickering (second picture) are today housed in the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest, Hungary.

If you are interested, please click this link to listen to its sound:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXDlQpxJtY


Although treble notes seem to be rather weak and failing, the power of this concert grand piano's sound can still be felt, and I can only wonder about its original sound back in 1879.

Please feel free to leave any comments.

Thank you.

It's a glorious sounding piano! Thanks for sharing.

Some of the high treble sounded horribly out of tune.

Since the original post a recording of Liszt's Chickering piano has become available on BIS (CD-244) performed by Dag Achatz. It is an excellent recording and the piano sounds great! My favorite selections are:

Consolation No.3
Hungarian Rhapsody No.3
Liebesträume - No.3 : Notturno
Les Jeux D'Eau À La Villa D'Este

Anyone who is interested may find it here:

http://www.discogs.com/Franz-Liszt-Dag-Achatz-Piano-Works-Played-On-Liszts-Own-Piano/release/1439761

Speaking of horribly out of tune pianos, here's a video I chanced upon today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHeuyKLfPi4&feature=related What are people thinking when they play concerts on these pianos?!