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Glenn Gould played a Steinway. Only Steinway. Only his own particular Steinway. He was fussy about that.

Yes, I thought he had a particular Steinway. The serial number is well known. Richter was the Yamaha man I think.

For number 1 maybe, for number 2 far from `everybody`, only minority. Compare to samples Pt6 is a real thing, compare to acoustic it is a joy to expect even more from it in the future.

Gould owned, performed and recorded on Steinways and later on Yamahas.

Gould’s legendary first recording of the Goldberg Variations was made on a Steinway CD 19, a model similar to the piano that Gould himself owned, a CD 174 that was irreparably damaged in transit in March 1957. Not until 1960 or 1961 did Gould find a worthy replacement in the form of a “pre-World War II Steinway which answers to CD 318, and to which I feel a greater devotion than to any other piano that I have encountered” – not that this prevented him from constantly tinkering with the instrument in order to bring the hammers closer to the strings, for example, and in that way make it easier to produce non-legato playing. (Prior to acquiring his CD 318, Gould had for a time fitted his old Steinway with steel T-pins in order to create what he called a “harpsi-piano”, an instrument that he defined as “a neurotic piano that thinks it’s a harpsichord”. At the end of 1971 CD 318, too, suffered an accident from which it never recovered, with the result that Gould’s final recordings were made on a Yamaha CF II that he discovered in New York and that kept him company for the rest of his life. (GLENN GOULD FROM A TO Z (BY MICHAEL STEGEMANN)

OK my bad, apologies. Seems his final piano was Yamaha and his late Goldberg variations were recorded on a Yamaha but he was a Steinway user before that. Anyway, he switched brands so was not only a Steinway user either.

Elton John switched from Steinway to Yamaha in the '80's.

I'm really getting into Pianoteq 6!

Sorry, this is a mistake. I saw a countless videos with him, read interviews, etc. Steinway only. At his home, famous Goldberg Variations recordings (2), etc. Never heard about any other brand from him.

Added: OMG, so many answers, I did not see them because the original message was at the end of the previous page, so I thought it is the last one, lol.

He was, but only towards the end of his life. He was a Steinway player for years before that until he had a serious disagreement with one of their agents. So it depends if you're talking about his 1950s recording or the 1981 recording: the first was (I'm pretty sure) Steinway, and the last one was Yamaha. So the question is, which one is Zack referring to.

Well, now is the time to hear it for the first time: he switched to Yamaha, played it in the famous late Goldberg Variations and a few others of his late recordings I thought he played only Yamaha but I was wrong. However you are also wrong that he never played any other piano than Steinway

He switched from Steinway to Roland in the 80s. Then switched (permanently it would appear) to Yamaha in the 90s, although what you hear is a combination of Roland and Yamaha sounds. I wish he'd go back to Steinway although he said they "didn't give a sh*t" and Yamaha has provided real support.

That 80's Roland sound has not aged well in my opinion.

Hi, was off.
Someone ask me for recording of Gould, I am not sure I will find it (it was last week end, and I don't think I had the same piece to really compare hte sound).

But we can compare "J.S. Bach - Fugue in F Sharp Major Book 1, BWV858", on steinway D, first google matches :

from pianoteq steinway demo :
https://www.pianoteq.com/audio//mod...or%20Book%201%20-%20Jacob%20Smullyan.mp3

with this (starting at 1:46) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpFS5i57XM4

And this (1:34) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=999JR95aOMw

Or this one (more legato and slower tempo 2:00) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL3GP-L1N24

All on steinway, seems to be the D model (but don't known if we can really guess model just on these visual).

Will try to look if I can find a gould recording of the same piece...

EDIT :
This recording is with a steninway D (hamburg) (1:09) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upR_DnVF2yU

Gould have done this recording : this is CD 2, track 2, but can't find it on internet for listenong, don't know neither if the recording uses steinway D or yamaha (I am pretty sure, this is not the version I used to make my post, so sorry I screw it up :-( )

https://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-...&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

The Pianoteq demo didn't seem too far off, comparing to the real Steinway recordings. OT, the Steinway Grand in the first video looks so big, the girl must have needed to call a taxi to get to the other side of it.

From a pianist perspective professional recordings made by audio engineers don't tell much about any piano, acoustic as well as electronic.

I don't want to listen to recordings, I want to play an instrument. That's a completely different scenario with very different requirements.

Well, VSTis are used both for playing (practising) and recording, so recording quality matters a lot, to me at least. Every single digitally produced piano sound, and that includes piano VSTs and onboard sounds of digital pianos, is a recording of some physical piano, except the modelled ones of course, which are still digitally produced.

So the only way to avoid playing a recording, or a modelled piano for that matter, is playing an upright or a (baby) grand piano. Though I agree with you, that we want to make the recordings, or the modelled piano sounds, as close to the real thing as possible. Can that be made with a recording? I'm not saying it can rather be made with modelling, though I won't rule out that possibility.

He switched to Yamaha? In the 90s? Not likely.
Now, I didn't know he played Roland in the 80s.
But perhaps Roland at that time had a prescient glimpse of their 2010s era "supernatural" piano sound?

Upon playing said Roland perhaps Gould inherited its supernatural powers to allow him to switch pianos in the 90s ... years after he was dead! (He died in 1982.)

HE WHO?

The HE in the quote refers to Elton John.