I took a little trip last week, my first one in three months. The air was getting a little noxious here in the Twin Cities, what with the flag-waving, Liberal-denouncing, Bible-thumping, Tax cuts for the rich espousing, quadrennial waves of self-congratulatory apoplexy that was coming out of the Xcel Center. It was either get arrested or go do something else interesting. The next thing I knew I was landing at LaGuardia.
I found myself in the City That Never Sleeps on behalf of the Winspear Centre, the fabulous hall that the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra has the distinct pleasure of playing in. The Winspear is in need of a new piano, and when you need a new piano you call up Steinway in New York and, very politely, ask to come and pick out a piano at the factory. The fact that you’re going to buy a Steinway is simply understood. After much negotiation it was decided that the 3rd of September was a good day to pick out a piano and Winspear enlisted me to fly in and give it the old college try.
I had never picked out a piano before but I have friends in the business who have done this. From all accounts it’s a thankless job. Much depends on the quality of instruments available to you, or should I say the quality of instruments Steinway decides to make available to you. If you show up saying “I’m picking out an axe for the Concertgebouw” that’s one thing. You can be assured that the best instruments in the immediate 250 miles are in the room for your perusal. While I’m sure they love having the Winspear’s business we don’t quite have the cachet of that great Dutch hall. None-the-less, the last thing Steinway wants is for their clients to be unhappy with an instrument. That would get them nowhere, and like the good business people they are they want us to be happy.
When I arrived at the factory with the Winspear manager, Peter Gerrie, in tow we were met by Nichole who has been working in Institutional Sales for a little over a year. She brought us straight to The Room which was populated by 5 Ds (9′) and 5 Bs (7′). But I made a beeline to the other instrument in the room which was quite obviously very old. I have a special interest in the older instruments (my own B, “Nadia,” dates from 1900) and I’ll take any opportunity to try one out. This turned out to be one of those “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities because this instrument was the oldest extant Steinway in existence!! Made in 1836 this is the very first Steinway piano ever made. WOW!!!!
After that little thrill it was on to business. I had 5 Ds in front of me and the pressure of making a decision about how the Winspear Centre should invest $127,000. And here’s the problem – it’s all well and good to settle on a new instrument, and it might sound and play really well today, but that is absolutely no guarantee that a year from now that piano is going to be any good. It could change drastically, or develop some strange quirk, or whatever. Buying a new piano is a real crap shoot.
Ravel, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Bartok, Gershwin… some of my friends who came along to try out the piano with me. I eliminated one almost immediately. Turns out that was the newest of the bunch. Then we were down to 4. One nice distraction came about 1/2 hour into the process. I got the chance to witness the rim-bending of a new D. This is a fascinating process where lengths of thin wood are glued together and then pressed into the shape of a piano. Through the use of incredible pressure and technology which hasn’t changed in 100 years that wood is bent and molded. One day, a year down the line, that is going to be a brand new D. I wonder if I’ll ever play that piano that I say being started that day.
Back to work. Two more pianos go by the wayside. Turns out they are the 2nd and 3rd newest of the instruments in the room. This doesn’t surprise me. It takes a while for a new instrument to get broken in, and the less time that it has been played the less “mature” the sound of the instrument is going to be. I naturally shied away from the newer and brighter pianos. So we were down to two. One of them immediately got the nickname “The Beast” because it’s serial # ended in 666. I couldn’t make up my mind because I thought there were some issues with the other piano, despite the fact that I thought it might be a superior instrument. So while a technician did some adjustments on it Nichole took us over to the Restoration Center.
This was what I really wanted to see because I plan on sending “Nadia” to Steinway to undergo their Heirloom process. This is where the workers take antique pianos and complete recondition them. New soundboards, new harps, new key structures, new everything. At the end you have what is basically a new instrument in an antique case. Very lovely, very valuable. The Restoration Center is in the old part of the Steinway factory, and Nadia was most probably built right in those rooms. It was a delight to meet some of those workers and tell them that in a few months they would meet my own piano. I think Nadia will be most welcomed by them. There is also a small display area which holds some classic old instruments that were very beautiful to hear and behold.
Back to work. Another 30 minutes of playing and I finally decide on a piano. Despite that little nasty voice inside me I did NOT pick “The Beast,” tempted though I was. And here is a picture of Peter and I with the new Winspear Centre Steinway D.
Well, what to do after picking out a piano? Nothing to do but go to the US Open, my second Grand Slam tournament of the year. Safina’s quarterfinal match, as well as Murray’s. My first trip to the open was 1980 when I saw both Tracy Austin and Bjorn Borg play. Fortunately the US King Tennis Center is very close to LaGuardia. I walked off the tennis grounds at 5 pm and was walking through security for my 6 pm flight at 5:15.
I’d like to thank all the folks at Steinway for hosting us. It was a wonderful experience, and I look forward to sending Nadia into their capable hands this fall. Now, if someone could arrange for me to be needed in London say, during the first week of July I’d greatly appreciate it. Ah……. Wimbledon!