Instruments you struggle with

[zola]

Yes, I note that a 'period' piano will be employed at the next Chopin competition apparently - much to the absolute horror of some...! I welcome it, as the difference in sound between most modern concert grands in minimal imo (whatever the manufacturers like to claim) and this will 'test' the musicians in a very different way. Steinway led the way with more heft, weighty tone, sheer volume, thunderous bass etc etc, not always what Chopin, or indeed Brahms, Schubert, Mendelsssohn really need..

The "period" Chopin competition will be an additional competition in intermediate years, not a replacement for the long standing format which will continue.

[Pianoman]

Ah right thanks - makes sense.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't have any problems with harpsichords (though I regret their lack of dynamic range), clavichords and straight-strung pianos. Those earlier pianos are a different matter. I see them as instruments very much on the deveopment stage. As for the argument that these were the instruments the composers wrote for, it's a compelling argument, but composers generally welcomed newer instruments as they appeared, so perhaps were not content with what they had.

I would suggest that, in the case of Liszt, the ideal piano for his music has yet to be designed.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I would suggest that, in the case of Liszt, the ideal piano for his music has yet to be designed.

Joseph Cooper's Dummy Keyboard?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Joseph Cooper's Dummy Keyboard?

[pastoralguy]

Joseph Cooper's Dummy Keyboard?

Harsh. (But funny!)

[BBMmk2]

Joseph Cooper's Dummy Keyboard?

That's going back a few years!!

[David-G]

"Can you honestly prefer to hear eg Beethoven's PC4 on a fp than a concert grand?" (Cloughie)

Without hesitation yes. Thinking of the evolution of instruments as consisting of "improvements" is rather akin to thinking of the evolution of music in the same way, surely. Musical styles change, and instruments are invented or developed or discarded to take account of those changes, not to play the same music "better".

I can, cloughie - the range of colours from that instrument makes modern instruments intended to play Rachmaninoff in Carnegie Hall sound ... well, monochrome in comparison. Getting the sound that Beethoven was more used to - as opposed to something he'd never heard - reveals so much about balance, timbre, and texture that are lost in 20th Century instruments.

Very well said, both!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Each to his/her own.

[hmvman]

For me, the Pedal Steel Guitar. Not a struggle just an absolute loathing. Fortunately, as far as I'm aware, no classical works have featured this abomination - yet...

[David-G]

I don't have any problems with harpsichords (though I regret their lack of dynamic range), clavichords and straight-strung pianos. Those earlier pianos are a different matter. I see them as instruments very much on the development stage. As for the argument that these were the instruments the composers wrote for, it's a compelling argument, but composers generally welcomed newer instruments as they appeared, so perhaps were not content with what they had.

Certainly Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were interested in and took advantage of the latest developments in piano design. But what you are missing is that in the development of the piano through the nineteenth century, things were lost as well as gained: clarity, tonal separation of registers, the ability to "speak" rather than to "sing", the great differences between instruments by different manufacturers. We simply cannot say that Beethoven would have welcomed with open arms the wonders of the modern Steinway, without admitting that we don't know if he wouldn't have missed the characteristics that have been lost.

I was privileged a couple of weeks ago to hear the opening of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata played on Haydn's grand piano, an English Longman & Broderip of 1795, by Alec Cobbe at Hatchlands. The sheer excitement of this performance was extraordinary - an edginess, a sense that the instrument was being played at its limits, giving more than one expected possible from a piano of this period. This, I felt, was what Beethoven was all about. The Pathetique sounds marvellous on a modern piano. But I am afraid, rather boring by comparison.