Period piano

[Rod]

Originally posted by Claudie MICAULT:
It is very easier to maintain a violin than a piano. And I think there are better specialists in the violin camp for there is a real tradition (from the Amati, Stradivarius etc...). The violonists are going easily to the repairer (because it is not heavy to carry !!!) so maybe it is one reason for which the violins resist better with age....

So explain why the original fortepianos sound the best!

Originally posted by Claudie MICAULT:

Beethoven's Graf was recently repaired and sounds fantastic.

This is good news, about time too. With Graf's 'sound deflector' attached, Schindler said the Graf's volume was deafening with chords, not that B could hear it anyway.

Much was made here about the restoration of B's Broadwood for Melvyn Tan's EMI recording(there was a documentary on tv), but the sound of this instrument is not in the Graf's league, even after Beethoven had it (the Broadwood) re-voiced at Graf's workshop (this repair was not undone in the restoration). B later said that the Broadwood did not meet his expectiations of it and it's keyboard compass was already obsolete before B got his hands on it. Of course B was proud of the gift, but this was why he also could not sell his Erard which too was a gift, but which as an instrument was extremely unsatisfactory to him.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin