Play Horowitz'z Piano: it's touring and near Cincinnati right now

[4greatkeyboards]

Here is the web link where you can make your reservation to play it. ( !!!!!!!)



https://cincinnati.com/blogs/arts/2013/07/22/horowitz-piano-to-stop-in-northern-kentucky/

[4greatkeyboards]

Review. I played Horowitz's piano yesterday! You can, too!

This event was at a music store which also had a concert hall adjoining. I was able to make an appointment, arrive early, practice on a brand new 9 foot Steinway, then play Horowitz's piano for half an hour.

H's piano is about 40 years old. In summary, it has a better action than the new reference grand provided by Steinway but a lesser tone. The new piano had a very significantly richer, deeper tone then H's. But H's had a lighter, tighter action and I much preferred it for range of expression.

But both pianos had a dynamic range beyond any I have ever played. If I were offered either piano at the same price it would be the new one, not H's.

[quantum]

I find it sad that Steinway thought to modify its action.  It is now a less accurate representation of what Horowitz played. 

Did you look underneath?
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=13102.0

[indianajo]

Thanks for the review and the heads up.  I was tempted but Florence Mall is about a protrait of Ben Franklin from here by Greyhound plus a local transit ride.  The only opportunity I have of playing a grand without renting it is in the fellowship hall of an inner city church in the next county. And that is only if I tune the one loose note up 1/2 step by myself.  It is an old Baldwin, but the middle pedal actually works like it should.  

[4greatkeyboards]

Hey quantum.

Thanks for the link, I had not seen those posts. And no, I did not look under the piano. I spent all my time playing and recording a video and the time was up in what seemed just a few minutes!

The piano did not look or feel abused. It's action was the smoothest and lightest of any I ever played ( for a big grand, I mean). And so expressive with lots of volume when you get on it. The paint, the finish, is showing its age, though. Rather dull but not scratched up. The keys, ivory I guess, had no marks or cracks that I noticed and they felt perfect. The only drawback was the thin tone compared to the new ones.

[louispodesta]

I hate to burst your bubble, but it aint' Horowitz' piano.  The instrument in question came to my home town of San Antonio about ten years ago, and I played the Schumann Arabesque on it.

I mentioned this to my tuner, who is a Steinway Factory trained technician, and he told me that this is not the same action that was in the original.  Further, he worked on the instrument when he was in New York, and like other technicians before him, he signed it underneath.

The Steinway people were none too pleased.  So, I am told that there are about two versions of this thing going around.

Further, Horowitz used to put lacquer on his bass hammers.  When you would hit a normal bass chord, it would sound like a bomb going off.   This instrument has no lacquer on the hammers.

So, check for the name of J. Verdusco somewhere underneath the piano, and also check for lacquer on the hammers.  If these factors are not present, then you are not looking at the real deal.

It won't be the first time Steinway lied.  They used to send out a real stiff action concert grand in New York, and if anybody complained about it, they would say that it was the piano that Rubinstein played.

They don't do that anymore because they got busted for lying about it more than once.   Earl Wild relates in his memoir how they tried to pull this on him, and he called them on it, and they backed down.

[chrisbutch]

Action aside, is this the one which Horowitz had modified so that una corda was the default, tre corde only engaging when the left pedal was depressed?

[awesom_o]

I hate to burst your bubble, but it aint' Horowitz' piano. 

This is not the first time I have heard this from a Steinway-trained technician.
I'm afraid what louispodesta says is true.

[louispodesta]

Action aside, is this the one which Horowitz had modified so that una corda was the default, tre corde only engaging when the left pedal was depressed?

Not the one I played on.

Oh, and make no mistake about it, this is a very nice piano that I would have in my home in a heartbeat.  It has very well thought out upper range, and the action is perfectly regulated.

Conversely, the junk they put out these days, with their stiff actions and weird skinny black keys, you can have.

[nyiregyhazi]

Action aside, is this the one which Horowitz had modified so that una corda was the default, tre corde only engaging when the left pedal was depressed?

I'm 99% sure you've got the wrong end of the stick. I've never heard that and I'd be stunned if such a thing could have passed everybody by. You may well have heard and misunderstood something along the lines of someone speaking about Horowitz using the soft pedal in reverse to standard usage- where he depressed it as the most normal and took it off for loud playing as a special effect. In that respect, it effectively became a loud pedal, as he had it depressed quite so frequently  (particularly in Mozart). But he made things loud by letting go of it- not by depressing it. I have to presume that you've misinterpreted a comment upon this aspect of his usage, as I can't believe it wouldn't have been widely reported, if true.

Louis- you do realise that Horowitz owned and toured with more than one different piano in his lifetime? Even if you hadn't- surely it's worth considering such a simple possibility, before letting rip with a silly conspiracy that would have any piano that this guy didn't sign as a definite fake?

[chrisbutch]

My source for the modified una corda was Kenneth Hamilton's After the Golden Age. Having looked up that reference again in the light of your comment, I can see that. although slightly ambiguous, it could indeed, as you suggest, mean an adjustment to the voicing to allow for a greater dynamic range in una corda rather than an actual mechanical reversal of the pedal function. The context, however, is a passage describing bespoke modifications some pianists have managed to persuade Steinways to make for them, such as Hofmann's piano with keys narrower than standard. This implies that at least some kind of physical alteration was involved in the Horowitz case. Hamilton doesn't, unfortunately, give a primary source reference for this.

I've always thought, incidentally, that the use of una corda in louder dynamics is a rather under-used effect. It does add to the tonal palette in a legitimate and interesting way, but for some reason a number of pianists with whom I've discussed this seem to think it's not quite respectable....

[4greatkeyboards]

As I played it I recorded this piece (mp3 attached named ENymphHwzPiano.mp3).