1920 Steinway Grand?

[dickreuter]

I'm thinking of making a recording in a studio. There's one studio that offers a Steinway Grand piano but it's very old. It's from the 1920s. Does anybody know in what way this affects the sound quality?

many thanks
Nicolas

[pianolist]

Hello Nicolas,

You are probably talking about a concert grand, but in case it helps, there are some recordings of 1920s German Steinway 'O' grands on our website. There are two pianos, both in good, original condition. Go to www.pianola.org/reproducing/reproducing.cfm. Disregard the odd noise from the player mechanism!

Modern pianos, be they Steinways or not, are generally harder in tone than those from eighty or more years ago, because that it what modern pianists want. Steinways themselves make fine modern pianos, but they couldn't restore an old Steinway to save their lives. What they would do would be to try and make it sound like a new Steinway, which is very different.

I doubt very much that a piano in a recording studio is going to sound like it did when new. It has probably been modernised in some way. You should go and try it, shouldn't you!