Friday 18 May 2012

I must have mentioned before my ever-growing dislike of Steinway pianos, not necessarily for the sound they make, but for the homogenising effect they have on classical music culture. There are now 135 Steinway-only music schools, as though limiting the opportunities to explore different instruments was something to be proud of.  I sat down at a Steinway this morning to play Grieg songs and it just couldn’t make any sense: too loud, too dull, impossible to get enough colour and flexibility without drowning a singer completely. I closed it in disgust and went to the 1844 Broadwood which just sang: (nearly) every note was exciting, and the top couple of octaves were wispy and transparent. It was several decades off being historically authentic, but it sounded great.  The idea that the same piano can be appropriate for a concerto with a 70 piece orchestra, and for a partnership with a single violin, or a gospel singer for that matter, is utter nonsense.  The Broadwood would be completely wrong and sound ridiculous in lots of contexts too, of course, but with all that in mind, it was encouraging to see Andreas Staier’s new Diabelli CD as recording of the week in the Guardian today (excerpt here).  Using only one kind of instrument in music from many cultures is like learning to paint with only one brush.