What is your favorite piano brand?

Dominic Cheli thanks for sharing your experience and insights!

I wonder if it is insane (or at least counterproductive and deafening) to have a concert grand in a space the size of a home living room. I notice that many of the pianists on Tonebase do seem to have concert grands in more modestly sized residential or studio spaces, but usually with the lid closed. 

As a concert pianist and educator, which would you prefer in your home or studio: a concert grand with the lid closed to control volume, or a smaller one perhaps with the lid open? Which would best facilitate your own practice, or your students' learning?

Michael It turns out a concert grand isn’t necessarily appreciably louder than a smaller grand. Bösendorfer demonstrated this to me with their very powerful 170VC model, which fully held its own when compared back to back with their bigger models! (The 280VC, though, was specially designed for maximum projection in large halls.) Steinway, Bechstein and Fazioli also have smaller grands that sound very powerful indeed—really more than sufficient for any living space. To me, their small grands may even be their biggest achievements since they seem to defy the laws of physics.

The difference in larger grands is more in the bass, similar to the way making a loudspeaker bigger doesn’t necessarily make it louder but tends to allow it to reproduce deeper bass frequencies more cleanly.

That said, concert grands do tend to have greater dynamic range, though mostly I personally like to take advantage of the dynamic potential on the softer end of the scale. The key levers are longer in a larger grand, which generally gives you more flexibility in controlling softer dynamics.

I fully share your enthusiasm for the Bösendorfer Imperial. (Full disclosure: I’m on their artist roster and am the fortunate, very satisfied owner of an Imperial! It gives me goosebumps from the sheer beauty of sound every single day. Even my wrong notes sound beautiful!) Most of the time I practice louder passages much softer. This protects my hearing and also helps to prevent building tension into my playing. (As a professional musician, I do a lot to protect my hearing since it’s a tool I need to rely on every bit as much as my piano.)

Also, I had my piano voiced more for a living room than a concert hall. Higher-end pianos are designed to give technicians maximum flexibility when it comes to voicing, from very warm to very bright, so this is something you can have adjusted to the room and your personal taste.

Albert thanks for sharing your experience and expertise. I'm curious, when you practice on your Big Bösi at home, do you keep the lid down, or perhaps select a shorter prop stick?

Can an expert technician with Bösendorfer experience voice the hammers down so they are simply more quiet (dialed down from 11 to 5), but still preserve the original timbre and perceived responsiveness and lightness of the action?

My fantasy is that such an instrument with longer key levers will (compared to my Hamburg Steinway B) greatly facilitate my progress in control and expressiveness beyond my current intermediate skill level, without demanding that my technique be revised to handle any increased weightiness or inertia imposed by a concert grand. Do you think that is realistic?

Michael Wow, you own a Hamburg Steinway B? Enjoy! That's a high-end instrument for professionals, so honestly I doubt the action of a concert grand would make a night and day difference when it comes to developing your skills. (If only it were that easy!)

There is of course some difference in the action due to longer levers, but to me the B is an ideal size that I for one could be perfectly happy with. The action is also sensitive enough and the dynamic range sufficient to allow you to develop a fully professional technique and range. If you get another piano for your living space, it should probably be because you love its sound and feel and individual character, regardless of its size.

An expert technician can indeed voice down the hammers to sculpt the sound. I've heard very impressive work voicing Bösendorfers, Steinways and Faziolis so they sound good in living rooms. Maybe dialing it down from 11 to 7 is more realistic?

In any case, just because dynamic potential is there doesn’t mean you have to use all of it in your living room, any more than you’d race down the street at 200 mph if you owned a 911 GT3! (Someone would have to call 911 if I owned a 911!)

I do practice on the Imperial with the lid all the way down and open it up when recording. Otherwise it would indeed be truly overwhelming!

Maybe Dominic Cheli can share his thoughts and experiences if he has a chance? You asked him after all... didn't mean to interject except to share your glowing enthusiasm for the Imperial!

Albert Your interjections have been phenomenally helpful, informative and entertaining! Thank you for them!

It is difficult to accept that having a concert grand piano will not transform me instantaneously into a grand concert pianist.

My totally rebuilt Hamburg B supposedly dates from shortly before 1920--hard to reconcile that with the Great War, but perhaps contributing to its explosive sound.

Albert I just had the opportunity to play on the Bösendorfer 280VC, 230VC and 225 (as well as a CFX)! They were all wonderfully responsive and surprisingly easy to play. The Bösendorfers had the expected variation of timbre in various sections of the keyboard, compared to the CFX which by comparison was almost too perfectly uniform to the extent that it seemed almost electronic.

May I solicit your expertise? On the 280VC the tenor area had been felt too bright and was voiced down so that to my ears it sounds almost muffled, "tubby".  I'm told that the brightness could be incrementally restored by doping the hammers with a solution of ping-pong balls dissolved in acetone. Do you have any experience with the use of hardener to voice hammers? Would this be stepping into a rabbit hole of degrading the hammers rapidly by fiddling with them so much in their youth? The timbre of the tenor area of all of the Bösendorfers I tried stuck me a little dull, even compared to the recordings I've heard. Do you thank that new Bösendorfers leave the factory voiced a little on the dull side, anticipating that as the felt compresses with use they will acquire the more focused, somewhat brighter timbre I hear on recordings?

Michael I'm just a pianist, not a technician, though personally I prefer to avoid hardening the hammers with lacquer or other solution if possible. There are other ways to harden the hammers. The simplest yet slowest way is just to play the piano! The sound will then open up over time, often so much so that you'll want to voice the hammers down again.

Steinway for instance does this at their factory by putting new, unfinished pianos in a special room where they're played fortissimo by a machine for hours or even days on end! In this way they're designed to sound good with bright hammers, which can then be softened as needed.

Bösendorfer took a similar approach with the VC series. I've played dozens of VC's as well as their classic models, and the VC is designed to sound very bright. (I recorded the Transcendental Etudes on the third 280VC prototype and was among the artists who gave Bösendorfer feedback before they launched the VC series.) They're also designed to give techs maximum flexibility in voicing, so if the ones you played sound at all dull in any register, it's most likely that they were voiced down or extra felt added to dampen the strings.

Lacquer is often used to voice the hammers for pianos that are used regularly in concert. One artist might prefer a very bright sound, while the next prefers a more mellow sound. As far as I know, going back and forth between lacquering the hammers and softening them with needles or by filing the felt will wear them out faster. But even then, modern piano hammers have a long shelf life. In my experience with Bösendorfer VC's, if you got one you should definitely be able to shape the sound to your liking in your acoustic space, whether it's a living room or a concert hall.

Hope this helps some. Maybe there are piano technicians here who might like to chime in?

Albert you're the best, taking the time to share your expertise!

I went looking for your recording of the Transcendental Etudes, but didn't see it on Qobuz (my go to streaming source). Where might I find it? I did find an extraordinary performance of virtuosic knuckle-busting works by Alkan on what sounds like an Imperial. Is that you?

Michael Glad to be of some help. Yes, that’s my recording, and yes, those works by Alkan are indeed knuckle-busting… yikes! And yes, that’s an Imperial, built in 1956.

I released a few of the Transcendentals on YouTube in honor of Ukraine, set to Lord Byron’s poem, since Ivan Mazeppa was a real-life folk hero who famously stood up to the Russian army. Recently I performed half of them and this led me to rethink and rework the cycle, so I may well end up re-recording them, though not until next year at the earliest. Then I’ll see which recording I like better, though I always find it very hard to judge my own playing.

Really happy that you enjoyed the Alkan album! There’s a short documentary about how that album came about. I don’t wish to do any sort of self-promotion here, though you can find it on YouTube in case you’re interested. I couldn’t be happier that Alkan’s music is getting more attention by pianists and music lovers alike. His was a truly fascinating and original artistic voice, which is really striking once listeners get past all the notes.

Dominic Cheli Thanks Dominic. I'm interested in AI and the possibilities for multimodality. The relationship between Chopin and Bill Evans can be heard in a comparison betwen Prelude in E minor and Blue in Green. I've been working with that.

Gail Thiele I’ve never played a Mason Hamlin, what are they like?

Angela Fogg They have a rich deep brown sound with non-shrill but round high notes.

Angela Fogg Angela Fogg The action on mine is not a light fluffy action but a very strong action. I feel I cn go deep into the keys.

Gail Thiele sounds enticing Gail, I’ll certainly try one if I get the chance!

Gail Thiele The action on  M&H pianos is going to differ hugely depending on year and other factors.  The action on mine (a 1994) was pretty heavy, and tiring on fast things like the Schubert Impromptus in A flat and E flat.  Then some of the hammers in the upper bass came loose and I had a technician replace all the hammers in the piano with lighter ones on carbon fiber shanks.  Now the action is lighter and not tiring.

Mark Alexander My M&H is a 1913 concert grand. Action is heavy which i love. Can produce a lovely ringing singing tone  and the bass notes resonate in your mid section like that of a cello.

Fernanda Machado - PianoClass The only Fazioli I’ve played was in a diploma exam. Initially I was excited to play it and I booked a pre exam session to get used to it. It was such hard work, particularly the pedals. It took so much effort that every time I pedalled I was pushed back in the stool and I spent the entire time trying to shuffle forward towards the keyboard whilst the peddling pushed me back and away from the keyboard. I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be like that and was incorrectly set up. After the exam I complained and was told it had a reputation for being a monster. Hmm. However, a Steinway would be wonderful!