Of course it can’t. The pianist plays. However, I digress…
I’m continually intrigued by statements such as “the Stuart piano is no good for X”, where X is Romantic music, Baroque music, Rococo music or skybluepinkwithpurpledots music.
Such statements always imply a basis from which such judgments are made, in this case, comparing the Stuart piano to the current orthodoxy. The problem with that, of course, is that the Stuart piano is not in itself the current orthodoxy. We leave that to Steinway, Bechstein, Bosenyamaha etc etc.
The piano that Mozart played, and therefore at that time the current orthodoxy at least for his music, is totally different to any other type of piano. Does that mean that Mozart could not be played on the Broadwood pianos of the English Piano School because they were new, compared to the Viennese Stein piano that Mozart played? Chopin and Mendelssohn loved to play Mozart. Did the fact they played on even bigger and ‘better’ pianos negate the music? Of course not.
The theory of evolution (i.e. survival of the fittest) applies as much to pianos as to aardvarks (yes, I know, aardvarks never hurt anybody). If a better piano comes along, the old is discarded. Mozart’s piano is now a (very rarely played) historical curiosity. In order to play Mozart on the better mousetrap, one needs to reinterpret Mozart for that mousetrap. That doesn’t invalidate the better mousetrap – it simply means that the music is capable of, and needs, effective reinterpretation.
Which brings me to the point of the sustain on a Stuart piano – it is long and powerful. The bottom C on my piano has a 40 second sustain time, and the volume decays much more slowly than other pianos. So your playing needs to adjust to this, and in fact it is very easy to play too quickly on this piano. The combination of reverberation in a concert hall plus the increased sustain means that clarity to the listener can be lost very easily. I’ve heard a performance of the Chopin B flat minor Scherzo on a 2.9 metre Stuart piano which was brilliant technically but very muddled to the ears. Consequently it is very easy to say that “the Stuart piano can’t play Chopin”. In reality, what is being said is that the performer didn’t adjust the performance to take account of the qualities of the piano, i.e. it is a matter of interpretation of the music, not a fault of the piano per se.
Within my limitations, romantic music (indeed any music) is fine on the Stuart. Remember, the performer makes the music. The piano is simply the instrument of production. If you don’t produce properly, that is hardly the fault of the piano.
It is but your humble servant.