How old is HIPP ?

[Chris Newman]

I am usually out on a limb for confessing this but I prefer the sound of a Fazioli, Bösendorfer or a good old wooden Broadwood to the clangerous Steinway the top notes of which remind me of a penny whistle in comparison to a first class flute. Even in Beethoven and Bartok!

[Bryn]

I am usually out on a limb for confessing this but I prefer the sound of a Fazioli, Bösendorfer or a good old wooden Broadwood to the clangerous Steinway the top notes of which remind me of a penny whistle in comparison to a first class flute. Even in Beethoven and Bartok!

"out on a limb"? Surely not. You are simply demonstrating good taste.

[vinteuil]

"out on a limb"? Surely not. You are simply demonstrating good taste.

Exactly! For a modern piano - give me a Bechstein or a Bösendorfer any time rather than a boring Steinway.

But most of the time - a Pleyel, or an Érard, a Graf, a Streicher, a Schantz, a Walter suits the music I'm most interested in...

[John Skelton]

Exactly! For a modern piano - give me a Bechstein or a Bösendorfer any time rather than a boring Steinway.

But most of the time - a Pleyel, or an Érard, a Graf, a Streicher, a Schantz, a Walter suits the music I'm most interested in...

Other non-boring pianos include http://vimeo.com/1483630

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzcBusxDThM

[verismissimo]

Exactly! For a modern piano - give me a Bechstein or a Bösendorfer any time rather than a boring Steinway.

But most of the time - a Pleyel, or an Érard, a Graf, a Streicher, a Schantz, a Walter suits the music I'm most interested in...

Or a Broadwood!

[MickyD]

"As has been well documented, Beethoven continually exhorted his piano makers to come up with bigger, louder and better instruments"

But surely that was because of his increasing deafness!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"As has been well documented, Beethoven continually exhorted his piano makers to come up with bigger, louder and better instruments"

But surely that was because of his increasing deafness!

I wasn't going to mention that!

[Panjandrum]

"As has been well documented, Beethoven continually exhorted his piano makers to come up with bigger, louder and better instruments"

But surely that was because of his increasing deafness!

You may have hit on something there Micky!

Seriously, he was making complaints as early as 1795 about the instruments with which he was being supplied.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Seriously, he was making complaints as early as 1795 about the instruments with which he was being supplied.

I'm saying nothing.

Except that I'm going offline for a few minutes to play on my boring Steinway.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A teacher with a Steinway!

(You still have those negatives of the Chair of Governors, then, Alpie? )

[MickyD]

You may have hit on something there Micky!

Seriously, he was making complaints as early as 1795 about the instruments with which he was being supplied.

Does anyone remember that engraving by Batt in the old Percy Scholes Oxford Companion to Music, in which we see Beethoven in his workroom? The text reads "Behind him stands his Graf piano, wrecked by his frantic efforts to hear his own playing".
I think there was probably quite a bit of artistic licence employed there! Or is there any truth to the anecdote?

[Tapiola]

Does anyone remember that engraving by Batt in the old Percy Scholes Oxford Companion to Music, in which we see Beethoven in his workroom? The text reads "Behind him stands his Graf piano, wrecked by his frantic efforts to hear his own playing".
I think there was probably quite a bit of artistic licence employed there! Or is there any truth to the anecdote?

O yes, Micky. The heading was "Beethoven nears the end" I think. Bits of old sandwich strewn about, spectacles, manuscripts...

[french frank]

O yes, Micky. The heading was "Beethoven nears the end" I think. Bits of old sandwich strewn about, spectacles, manuscripts...

This one?

[Tapiola]

This one?

[vinteuil]

Bits of old sandwich strewn about...

I did worry for a moment that "sandwich" might have been an anachronism - but a little bit of research has reassured me that it might, after all, have been a HIPP sandwich - 'cos the eponymous Earl had done his stuff by then....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Sandwich