Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Franz Mohr RIP

Nice to see Mohr getting the recognition he deserves. RIP.

“I play more in Carnegie Hall than anybody else,” he said of his career adjusting instruments for Horowitz, Gould and others, “but I have no audience.”

Carnegie Hall staff -- 'it takes 6 hours to tune a piano?' hehe

I met him in 2012 when he came to give a talk at my local Steinway dealer. I arrived several minutes before the rest of the crowd and saw him sitting alone just outside the venue. I was a star struck, being in the presence of this legendary person. I walked over, introduced myself and sat down beside him. We chatted for several minutes before the rest of the crowd showed up and the event commenced. He was somewhat shy, very polite and kind. A gentle soul. He signed a copy of his book and audio book for me, and I got to take a picture with him. It was a special day for me. I'll never forget it.

Sorry to learn of his passing.

I happened to catch a spot on Martha Stewart's show, many years ago after she had purchased a Steinway grand for her home, and the company provide Franz Mohr to talk about tuning, regulating, and voicing. Martha wanted to talk more about how to clean the keys and case, and Franz couldn't quite hide a knowing look on his face like she'd be more challenging to work with than Gould and Horowitz combined.

Here is a nice tribute to Franz Mohr from The Economist.

I had to log in to my (free) account to read the entire article.

Thanks so much for posting such a personal tribute.

I missed this edition so thank you for pointing it out - I am happy to see Franz Mohr getting the recognition he deserves albeit very sad to hear of his passing!

I did wonder about something in the article, it states: "After Horowitz's death in 1989 he continued to care for it, tuning and regulating it and accompanying it on tour round America, so that other pianists could play it..." although wasn't the action (unfortunately) reset to a standard Steinway action by this point?

I also wondered if the ability to emulate Horowitz's piano action is now lost to the passage of time... I would have paid anything to try that piano action!