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piano

byo piano?

Stephen Hough, in a recent blog entry, answered an oft-asked question directed towards him: what kind of piano do you play on at home? Here’s what he said:

The truth is that most musicians I know have pretty rough pianos at home (not to mention the hi-fi systems on which they listen to music – and balance their coffee cups). It’s not just a question of the cost of a fine concert grand, although I found it difficult to discover the current price of a nine-foot Steinway on the internet: “if you have to ask, you can’t afford” perhaps? It’s also that I find it hard to work well on a gleaming young beast and I prefer to be hidden away somewhere with a gnarled, weather-beaten old joanna. I also don’t want to own an instrument that makes every concert hall experience a disappointment. In my New York apartment …  for a day here and there … I have to confess … this is the piano I work on.

For the rest of his blog entry, click here.

I was actually thinking about this when Stephen Hough was playing his encore the other night after Liszt’s 2nd Concerto. I know that most other instrumentalists buy the best instruments they can (or sometimes cannot) afford. Why not? You carry your instrument with you wherever you go, and you never know the quality of the hall, orchestra, or pianist that you will find yourself playing with. So a great instrument is a blessing.

But what if you are a concert pianist?

Wouldn’t having an incredible instrument at home be a curse? What would happen if you found yourself playing incredibly intricate music that calls for infinite variations of shading and color and dynamics, and you found this awaiting you:

piano
Photo: http://randompixels.blogspot.com

That would not be a pretty picture for our indefatigable piano soloist! So it makes sense that one would have some sort of serviceable upright somewhere outside of one’s main home (I’m presuming that Mr. Hough spends most of his time in the UK, not in New York). Then, you’d find some good examples of grand pianos to do some real quality practicing on, or have a grand piano at one’s home base.