http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32885683
I expect that this instrument will have the qualities of the old Straight Strung Instruments such as Beethoven's Broadwood Piano.
Of course Barenboim's new piano has a steel frame, and modern action, so will be more reliable as to touch and stability of tuning in comparison with the older wooden types.
But I am not sure that Barenboim got there first. A good friend of mine - now sadly deceased used to live at Shelsey Beauchamp in rural North Worcestershire, and her husband built a straight strung steel framed piano which was completed about 2002. Of course this one retained its original mid-nineteenth century Broadwood case, and its sound-board was now excused from carrying some tension from the strings, but now had a full steel frame, precisely fitted together and fitted into the old casework so that if you did not look under the lid, you never know.
It had a glorious tone, variegated as to timbre with distinct bass, tenor, alto and treble registers, which not only offered some enjoyable variation in timbres, but was superb at allowing a player to balance the voices being played according to register in a famashion that was lucid and completely compelling. At that time the BBC made some recordings of the piano that were broadcast at that time. I am not if it was Martin Roscoe who played the piano for the sessions in the very large main room of the house. Anyway, the results were aired on Radio Three those years ago.
I wish this new venture every success, as an alternative to the ever converging and ever more standardised sonorities of modern pianos. The days when great Erard, or Broadwood straight strung pianos were instantly recognisable as being from their respective makers would be a great new direction for the instrument to resume, which though more powerful and reliable than before, ...
Nobody expects two great new or old violins to sound all that similar, and this is very much an advantage for the player, who can choose the ideal instrument for the music has chosen to play ...
ATB from George
Posted on: 26 May 2015 by EJS
Originally Posted by George Johnson:
Pianos have got more reliable, but not inherently more appealing in timbre.
ATB from George
It's become fashionable to say this, but a modern Bösendorfer achieves timbral variety and reliability for those who don't like the Steinway or Yamaha sound. In that short clip that has been released of the Barenboim-Maene, it sounds more like a Steinway with the breaks on than a 200-year old Broadwood or Erard grand. The jury is out - I'm awaiting András Schiff's response to this 
EJ
Posted on: 26 May 2015 by George Johnson
But the Bosendorfer has fthe homogenious sonority that ignores the differentiated timbres of bass, tenor, alto and treble such as are represented in the violin and double bass family in the string orchestra, and yet was expected even to the time of Brahms, who was a proponent of the straight strung piano quite as much as the natural [valveless French] horn with its extra-ordinary uneven-ness of tone in different keys ....
The homogeninization of musical tone is a bad thing and diminishes the possibilities intended by the composers.
I would not worry about Schiff's response. Brendel's would be far more instructive.
ATB from George
Posted on: 26 May 2015 by EJS
Originally Posted by George Johnson:
But the Bosendorfer has fthe homogenious sonority that ignores the differentiated timbres of bass, tenor, alto and treble such as are represented in the violin and double bass family in the string orchestra, and yet was expected even to the time of Brahms, who was a proponent of the straight strung piano quite as much as the natural [valveless French] horn with its extra-ordinary uneven-ness of tone in different keys ....
The homogeninization of musical tone is a bad thing and diminishes the possibilities intended by the composers.
I would not worry about Schiff's response. Brendel's would be far more instructive.
ATB from George
Don't know why you'd bring Brendel into the discussion. Has he had a change of heart? I've heard him many times in person, always on a Steinway. Which he famously prepped to get the most even voicing possible from the instrument, much to the chagrin of the poor soul who had to play the instrument on the next night.
Cheers,
EJ
Posted on: 26 May 2015 by George Johnson
Brendel is a link to histrory, via Edwin Fischer, more than any living pianist.
Fischer's grandfather was alive during the life of JS Bach for example ...
I would be fascinated to read what he thought of a modern straight strung piano!
He might dismiss it, or he might welcome it.
Whatever his reaction might be would be far more interesting to me, than anything Schiff might ever say or do, but then my perspective is not current, but current as mediated by the root.
The view of Kempff would have been just as fascinating. The view of Paul Lewis, ... less so ...
ATB from George
Posted on: 26 May 2015 by George Johnson
The piano is stuck in time, and I hope Barenboim,'s initiative shakes things up a bit.
No other classical musical instrument is so stuck in a single notion, and that makes the standard Steinway of today, already a museum piece!
No person could call the violin stuck in time, and that is good for music and performance practice.
One might object to this or that, such as Heifetz playing Bach with steel strings, but the instrument has not ossified, unlike the piano for a good century ...
ATB from George
Posted on: 28 May 2015 by George Johnson
You may like this. It is a film of Melvyn Tan playing some Beethoven Bagatelles on Beethoven's own 1817 Broadwood straight strung Fortepiano just after it was fully restored in Britain.
The instrument was given to Beethoven by the company, and he was very proud of it!
All five parts of this film are interesting to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...list=WL&index=72
What I love about this sort of piano is the clarity and splendid natural balance of its various registers ...
ATB from George
