Grand Obsession

Axtremus

A “before my time” question…where was the August 2008 piano party held?

New York City.
IIRC, Elena's duo were giving a concert in Carnegie Hall that weekend so Jon-NYC hosted a piano party to coincide with the event.
Naturally, a great time was had by all.

wtg

@Axtremus - But that's not jon's house in those videos, is it?

This one is from jon's party:

Link to video

edit: I just looked it up ow PW. Duo Scarbo's Carnegie concert was in June 2007.

August 2008 piano party still a mystery....

pique

@Axtremus no, that party was in 2007. June. IIRR. And that party was held in JonNYC's Brooklyn apt, which did not have curtains like that. I am sure of this because I was unable to attend that party due to being on deadline to finish the ms for Grand Obsession, which was published in Jan 2008. Also I've been to Jon's apt several times and that isn't his apt.

Maybe this was in the Washington DC area? Didn't we have a PW member who threw a party there the following summer? Or maybe it was at Mary Anna's in Florida? I remember not being able to attend those either because of the book tour.

Mary Anna

I believe the video of Muffin and me was made at Plays88Keys' piano party. Jon was there and he's in the video. Do you recall, Jon?

She had a Steinway at the time, so you're probably right that it was a New York Steinway.

Mary Anna

I had a party in Florida, but it was in 2007 and that's not my house. I'm pretty sure it was at Plays' house in Virginia.

Mary Anna

If anybody wants to feel old, Muffin just turned 29. (Ack!)

They are singing in a community choir and I was just down there Thursday to hear a performance. It is so lovely to live nearby.

ShiroKuro

@Jodi said in Grand Obsession:

I feel like some of these modern piano composers that I like have a much bigger reach than I do,

Yep. I play music by Alexis Ffrench, David Lanz, and George Winston. All of these guys are quite tall, and as far as I can tell from videos, they all have massive hands.

I’ll check out the Messenger.

I need to pick my next pieces to work on after the concert is over …

AndyD

Piano tuner booked for next Friday, retired from London Steinway so fingers crossed.

Meanwhile our piano stool, (chewed by a teething dog years ago) got some TLC this week:

All four legs chewed in two places were filled and then stained

AndyD

You'd never notice now

Nina

@wtg ️
I still miss my Pleyel...

ShiroKuro

@AndyD wow! That’s an impressive repair job! Did you do it?

AndyD

Thanks, started with some trepidation but thought, well, surely it won't be worse
Hardest was getting the original shape when sanding the filler (two lots of filler, the chewing was so deep).
And I never have exactly the right colour stain... oak, redwood, dark tudor. Usually mix them, trial and error.

AndyD

Anyone know how to cure a rocking motion of an adjustable duet bench? Though it adjusts up and down fine, it has loosened somehow over the last 30 years. If you sit in the middle and press down left hand right hand it rocks.

Rontuner

Depends on the manufacturer, Jansen will sell kits to replace worn bushings. Flip it over and try to determine where the movement occurs. Sometimes it is just a matter of loose screws/nuts and bolts.

Big_Al

@AndyD
Very nice restoration work, Andy.

Big Al

wtg

@Big_Al said in Grand Obsession:

@AndyD
Very nice restoration work, Andy.

Big Al

Indeed.

And why is it that dogs go after piano benches? Our first golden chewed off the corner of the lid on the piano bench (it wasn't an adjustable style of bench). The fellow who did the repair didn't do nearly as a good a job as @AndyD did on his bench.

wtg

Stumbled upon this recent video titled "Valentina Lisitsa Meets Grotrian".

Valentina Lisitsa visit us at PianoWorks over the weekend and during a tour of our workshop, she encountered a Grotrian Charis model 208 Studio. We recently retired this piano from concert duty and the pedals were taken apart while we re-sprayed the matte ebony finish...hence the no pedal challenge.

She plays for about 7 minutes, and then talks about her reaction to the piano.

Link to video

AndyD

Really like this demo, and her comment "It doesn't feel like a toy piano".

Her technique is to be envied; yet, dare I say she often plays like she has a train to catch?

Piano*Dad

@Mary-Anna said in Grand Obsession:

I believe the video of Muffin and me was made at Plays88Keys' piano party. Jon was there and he's in the video. Do you recall, Jon?

She had a Steinway at the time, so you're probably right that it was a New York Steinway.

I agree. I was there with Anthony at that one, in Richmond.

wtg

@Piano-Dad said in Grand Obsession:

I agree. I was there with Anthony at that one, in Richmond.

And there are videos to prove it...

WTF-Beta

Grand Obsession