


You let the piano speak to you you get acquainted and adjust.” “It would just be something else to worry about” before a performance, he explained. Denk said, he has not been tempted to gain more knowledge about the mechanics of the piano. Bernache emphasized that “sound and touch are inextricable.”Īnd yet, Mr. Often, this can give a pianist the impression that an instrument is easier to play, the sense that more sound is coming out.

Bernache can make adjustments by lubricating the internal parts, or slightly changing the key dip - that is, the level the key goes up or down. But that criticism can mean different things to different pianists. “They’ll say, ‘The action is too stiff,’” Mr. Some soloists complain even about Carnegie’s pianos. “As a technician, I’m kind of all that’s between pianists and their performance,” he said. Many pianists who come to Carnegie to try out the pianos ask for subtle adjustments to be made before a concert. There are three dozen adjustable components for each key mechanism, and 88 total keys. The keyboard mechanism of a grand piano is a complex system of interconnected parts, starting from the plastic-covered wooden key and ending with the shank with a felt-covered “hammer” that lifts to strike the strings. You could say it’s more ‘direct.’” (These instruments, by the way, only last about five or six years, and in some cases 10 today’s pianists aren’t hitting the same keys Rubinstein touched.) Bernache said both are “clear and bright,” the New York piano is a bit louder and produces more of a fundamental tone, or “bottom.” The Hamburg one has “a cleaner and more transparent sound. There are currently two at the ready at Stern Auditorium, Carnegie’s main stage: an American Steinway, from New York, and a German Steinway, from the company’s factory in Hamburg. Steinway has long held a contract to provide and maintain concert grand pianos for Carnegie Hall. “A lot of my job involves working with pianists on this very problem,” Joel Bernache, a technician with Steinway & Sons in New York, said in an interview. Even a superb Steinway in a concert hall may take adjusting to, and may not suit a particular pianist’s preferences. Young pianists at the Juilliard School have long traded battle stories of having to play on a “real PSO” - a “piano-shaped object.” Very fine pianos vary enormously in terms of sound, action and responsiveness to touch. After practicing a piece at home, a Conrad Tao or Jeremy Denk must perform on whatever instrument a hall has to offer. From their student days, pianists are compelled to develop adaptability.
PIANO TUNER NYC PROFESSIONAL
When serious pianists tour, though, they almost never bring their own instruments, which require professional movers to transport. If you’re a gifted young violinist, you may not have a priceless 17th-century violin, but you likely have a good instrument you can bond and travel with. Most musicians own, maintain and perform on their own instruments. In music school, I used to marvel at oboe players who would sit at lunch talking about different kinds of cane wood and the various knives and such they used to make their own reeds. Not only can violinists, clarinetists, harpists or flutists tune their instruments, and even bend pitches in performance, they also, by and large, know much more about how their instruments work. Why are pianists at such a loss when it comes to understanding the mechanics of their own instrument? This lack of knowledge separates them from almost all other instrumentalists.
