From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
Subject: Amusing anecdote - was Re: speakers for classical music
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 15:26:59 GMT

In article <184883@pyramid.pyramid.com> lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell) writes:
>In article <43291@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> wsun@jeeves.ucsd.edu (Fiberman) writes:
>>For all the experts out there:

>>If money were no object, what speakers are the best for
>>listening to classical music?

>    None.  Buy the New York Philharmonic, and put half the musicians
>    on your left and the other half on your right.

>    Better, buy the NYP and the Mormon Tabernacle.  Put them onstage
>    and seat yourself just in front of the rear support pillars.   

>    WAMM's and such would be mid-fi for those with "money no object"
>    budgets...   

Oh this brings up a TRUE story that I just have to pass along.

A very good friend of mine - the one who built the studio I used to
work at - related this to me.

In the studio we had a small Steinway - dating to the WWI era.  It
had originally been an Aeolien-Skinner (sp?) reproducing piano.  (A
reproducing piano differs from a player piano in that all the dynamics
of the original performance are recorded, and it sounds like a real
person playing).  The reproducing mechanism on this piano had been
removed prior to WWII.

This was one of 2 pianos.  This was his mothers piano.   His aunt had a
matching piano, and somewhere about 1975 or so,  when he saw his aunt,
he said "I don't want to be morbid, but when you die, I would really
like to have that piano".

Well about 2 weeks later he gets a call, and his aunt says - "The piano
is on it's way to you, should arrive in the next week".

Well I was there when the piano arrived.  I helped unload it from the
van.   The reproducing mechanism  was still there!   All the tubes - 
it was vaccuum operated - were like dry spaghetti - and they just broke 
off as we moved them.   After all it was about 60 years old.

So Eric decided to rebuild the piano.  The finish was attroicous.  It
had an afghan type covering on it as it sat in the window of her house
for 60 years.    The design was printed into the alligatored wood from
daily exposure to the sun.

In those days pianos were finished in hot lacquer, which gave a very
high gloss finish, technique that is impossible to duplicate today.
So this was redone with a warm lacquer finish to give it a satiny glow
and now shinny.  (Bright glossy pianos today are often finished with
glossy enamel - just like painting a car :-(  ).

Tom - the guy who rebuilt it - is legally blind - can only see about 1
foot.  And at the end of a year of hard work, cutting new tubes, taking
everything apart and putting it back together, the piano was almost the
way it was the day it left the factory.

It was about a $6000 - $7000 restoration project.

Eric got some reproducing rolls, and this was one of the finest sounding
pianos I have heard.

When it was done, he called is aunt and told her about the rebuilding.

She was furious.  Not about the refinishing, but she was very upset
that he rebuilt the reproducing mechanism.

He said "But I can put on a piano roll and it will sound just like
Horowitz is in the room playing".

And she said, very seriously - and she meant it - "Then why not hire
Horowitz?".

This lady was a true patron of the arts and felt the musician should be
the one to benefit.

By the way -  this grand old lady also had a two story tall player
pipe organ in her living room.   I'm sorry I never got to meet her. 

-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org  bill@bilver.uucp
                - ..!{peora|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill