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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Although inspired by the "best piano" thread, this is not meant to ridicule that thread in any way. I thought this thread might be fun since my guess is many members have played on outrageously bad pianos. I'll mention two:
1. For many years I gave a little recital at my Grandmother's birthday party in an assisted living facility. The piano was a Mason & Hamlin that sounded like it hadn't been tuned for around 10 years despite the claim of the manager that it had "just been tuned". Besides being out of tune, it sounded like a prepared piano with many extra metallic noises as if there were various objects inside.
2. I volunteered to play an Xmas recital in a big hospital and ended up playing in the psych ward. The music desk was broken and had to be propped up with books. Of course, the piano sounded like it hadn't been tuned for at least 10 years(despite those in charge saying the piano would be tuned in advance of my playing). But the worst part was the keys. The fronts of some were so jagged I had to be careful not to slice my fingers, and some of the plastic key tops actually came off while I was playing!
I have sometimes thought it would be fun to have printed program for a recital that instead of saying the usually seen "Mr. Famous Pianist plays the Steinway exclusively" at the bottom would say "Mr. Pianoloverus plays whatever is available....exclusively".
...and what about those of us who can post about both their "best" piano also being their "worst" piano! Or do samples of 1 not count?
across the stone, deathless piano performances
"Discipline is more reliable than motivation." -by a contributor on Reddit r/piano "Success is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration." -by some other wise person "Pianoteq manages to keep it all together yet simultaneously also go in all directions; like a quantum particle entangled with an unknown and spooky parallel universe simply waiting to be discovered." -by Pete14
When it comes to pianos, I "don't need much", to echo the words of Anderl Heckmair (who led the first successful ascent of the Eigerwand (= Nordwand = 'Mordwand' )). Though he was talking about hand- and footholds.....
As I never owned my own piano until 2010, for several decades after university (which had practice rooms with uprights), I made do with whatever piano I could find to play on. More accurately, anything that resembled a piano. I played on everything from fully-prepped concert grands to spinets with half their strings broken and the others out of tune. As well as ancient restored grands in stately homes and museums - which were often real pleasures of discovery, once owned by the great and the good. And pipe organs in churches, whenever I came across them.
Probably the worst piano I'd ever played on for any length of time was in a Scottish hostel in the Highlands, where I spent a night during a backpacking trip (when I hiked coast-to-coast across the Scottish Highlands in two weeks) some years ago. My first night in a concrete building in a week gave me the chance to eat decent hot food, dry out my tent and wash my smelly wet clothes (it rains a lot in Scotland ), and after stuffing myself with delicious haggis and deep-fried Mars bars, I discovered that there was a small upright of dubious lineage in the common room, masquerading as 'vintage furniture'. The warden told me she couldn't remember when anyone last played it, and didn't think it was playable any more.
Of course, I had to prove her wrong, and proceeded to tickle the ivories (yes, they were ivories). Something resembling an out-of-tune, wrong-note K545 (like Schnittke's take on it gone mad) with added strange-sounding buzzing and twanging noises appeared from the ex-piano. I revelled in it, especially after I discovered a volume of Scottish folk tunes arranged for piano in the stool, and proceeded to give everyone my own piano version of a jolly Highland fling. Missing notes (due to missing strings or keys) were amply compensated for by strong rhythmic drive and jagged accents (not all of them intentional), and everyone had a jolly good time.
Those who didn't plug their ears with their fingers, that is........
Pretty much any piano that has been made available in the 'public piano' thing that occurs every summer in my city. The pianos are battered, the keys are often missing their tops and a lot of them simply don't work. They aren't in tune and even if they were tuned what would be the point since they're exposed to the elements.
Still using these poor battered beasts is probably better than subjecting very fine instruments to such conditions.
The worst piano I ever played on? A public Yamaha upright on the draughty departure platform of the railway station in Monaco. It hardly gave a sound. Not the fault of the poor Yamaha. Any piano would have been ruined in those surroundings. I can only endorse Vid; the public piano initiative is a nice idea but it is a crime to expose musical instruments to the elements.
The worst piano I ever played on? A public Yamaha upright on the draughty departure platform of the railway station in Monaco. It hardly gave a sound. Not the fault of the poor Yamaha. Any piano would have been ruined in those surroundings. I can only endorse Vid; the public piano initiative is a nice idea but it is a crime to expose musical instruments to the elements.
I think they only use pianos that are ready or very close to ready for the junk heap.
The worst piano I ever played on? A public Yamaha upright on the draughty departure platform of the railway station in Monaco. It hardly gave a sound. Not the fault of the poor Yamaha. Any piano would have been ruined in those surroundings. I can only endorse Vid; the public piano initiative is a nice idea but it is a crime to expose musical instruments to the elements.
I think they only use pianos that are ready or very close to ready for the junk heap.
What an ignominious departure! I hope I go out in better style than that!
The worst piano I ever played on? A public Yamaha upright on the draughty departure platform of the railway station in Monaco. It hardly gave a sound. Not the fault of the poor Yamaha. Any piano would have been ruined in those surroundings. I can only endorse Vid; the public piano initiative is a nice idea but it is a crime to expose musical instruments to the elements.
I think they only use pianos that are ready or very close to ready for the junk heap.
Some of my best performances (or at least, the ones that gathered the most appreciative audiences and applause ) have been on the worst public pianos. After all, all I needed to do was to play very fast and very loud and keep the pedal down (assuming it has a working pedal) - you don't bother with trifling details like nuances, phrasing, dynamic gradation, variety of articulation, voicing etc as the (ex-)piano can't take them.
And the general public likes things fast & loud........
In January, my dear friend Miriam Kornberg, would visit London, from Israel, and as I've composed 10 trios (6 hands, one piano), I wanted to do a recording session with her and my other friend Alison Mathews.
Eventually, we found a church with a piano, and booked it, but I didn't actually check the piano beforehand.
I was very fortunate to want to do the recording on a time that no one would be there, so I had to drive there and get the keys. THEN I tried the piano and it was awful. In a way that no tuner would be able to salvage it. And I didn't think of saying anything to the people there and then.
Fortunately, I explained the situation to the person responsible and got a refund.
Next place to book was wonderful and I got the videos and recordings and all...
BTW, and without wanting to spam anything (as the score is not out yet), here's one of the trios, from the place we ended up to.
In January, my dear friend Miriam Kornberg, would visit London, from Israel, and as I've composed 10 trios (6 hands, one piano), I wanted to do a recording session with her and my other friend Alison Mathews.
Eventually, we found a church with a piano, and booked it, but I didn't actually check the piano beforehand.
I was very fortunate to want to do the recording on a time that no one would be there, so I had to drive there and get the keys. THEN I tried the piano and it was awful. In a way that no tuner would be able to salvage it. And I didn't think of saying anything to the people there and then.
Fortunately, I explained the situation to the person responsible and got a refund.
Next place to book was wonderful and I got the videos and recordings and all...
BTW, and without wanting to spam anything (as the score is not out yet), here's one of the trios, from the place we ended up to.
I played a wedding on a Kimball La Petite with a broken bass bridge (often low notes were just thuds). There was an Acrosonic that I enjoyed playing, interestingly enough, that sounded like a gourd harpsichord.