Once you’ve played a Steinway, nothing else counts

STEINWAY

Model D.

Last night (Sunday, August 12, 2007) the classical-music radio-station we listen to, Dubya Hex Hex Hi out of Rochester, had a program wherein the protagonists were trying to correctly pronounce “concert-grand piano.”
“I think it’s pronounced ‘Steinway,’” one said.
A snide remark, of course; but once you’ve played a Steinway, nothing else counts.
I had nine years of classical piano training, a torturous endeavor fraught with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
My crowning achievement was to learn Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, an incredibly challenging assemblage of wild rhythms, crazy syncopations, and insane offsets.
I also got so I could play Rimskij-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble-Bee,”although I remember having to stop and start over during a recital.
When I finished I was given a standing ovation by all the doting parents in attendance.
Houghton had two Steinway Model Ds.
One was on the stage in Wesley Chapel, and the second retired to a practice-room, supposedly with a broken sound-board.
I played the stage-piano a few times, but the practice-room piano a lot.
(The stage-piano was rather intimidating; like breaking the law. The practice-room piano, despite its broken sound-board, sounded fine.)
Cavalier Country Club in Wilmington had a Baldwin concert-grand. I played it a few times for “Three Little Bakers” gigs, but it wasn’t a Steinway.
Every piano is different. Steinway is pretty consistent, but Yamaha pianos are making it onto the concert-stage.
While designing our house, I went to our local Steinway store, supposedly to measure a Model D, so our family-room would be big enough should I ever get one.
No Model Ds were present, but they let me play a Steinway baby-grand.
It was deader than a doornail.
I said so, so they also had me try a Yamaha baby-grand. It was much livelier than the Steinway.
So I guess it depends on the actual piano itself, although Steinway is fairly consistent.
Vladimir Horowitz played a Steinway.
Piano-playing seemed to vaporize with the stroke. I can’t even hold a tune anymore.
And a Steinway Model D is beyond-the-pale — it would be like buying a Ferrari.
Nevertheless I have Gershwin’s “Preludes for Piano” set aside.

“Dubya Hex Hex Hi” equals WXXI; the radio-station is WXXI-FM, 91.5.

“Houghton” is the college I graduated from in 1966.

“Wilmington” Delaware.

“The Three Little Bakers” was a bake-shop chain of three Italian brothers in Wilmington, who once did an acrobatic-act on the Ed Sullivan TV Show. They continued to do their act as a promotion for their bake-shops. I belonged to a rock-group who accompanied their act.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.