The recent acquisition of a Steinway piano by the Sydney Opera House illustrates, in my view, one of the worst sins of music administrators not only in Australia, but I suspect elsewhere as well.
The sin of complacency.
Let me requote from an earlier posting:
“The decision to go with a Steinway, rather than one of the other major brands, such as Kawai or Yamaha, or an Australian-made Stuart piano, was made in consultation with the Sydney Symphony, the main hirer of the Concert Hall.
A venue like this is expected to have Steinways. That's what everyone wants to play on"
This gave rise to a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, which I quote in full below:
“
No reason to spurn Stuart
Vladimir Ashkenazy is, without question, a great pianist. Whether that qualifies him to be the sole judge of pianos for the Opera House is another matter, especially when he seems to have such a close relationship with the manufacturing firm.
Furthermore, while there is no doubting the truth of the comment by Richard Evans, the new Opera House chief executive, that the venue is expected to have Steinways, the fact is that there are quite a number of them already at Bennelong Point.
Why was the Australian-made Stuart spurned so readily as the replacement? It sounds just like the treatment of our composers. We will never achieve much if we always look overseas for affirmation.”
How true.
Consider this (partial) quote from one of the fora at pianoworld.com (the capitals are original):
“… in order for Steinway to design anything, they must first have an R&D department. Since nothing new has come from that company in terms of a genuinely new model in likely 80 years plus or minus, it would be a safe assumption that they are not designing ANYTHING … The fact is there are very few piano engineers on the planet. I am sure that it is Steinway's assertion that they already have the best pianos on the planet, so why employ an R&D department, which I am sure that they do not. The Asian manufacturers on the other hand, likely employ such departments. THEY after all ARE introducing new/improved models on a fairly regular basis.”
To which latter list, of course, we can add Stuart & Sons.
The author of the above quote has hit the nail flush on the head. By purchasing an admittedly very high quality Steinway, the Opera House has voted for the status quo, tradition, conformity and musical blandness.
As one who has watched the Opera House grow from its inception, the last thing you can say about its design is status quo, tradition, conformity and blandness. Utzon’s original design is quite simply breathtaking in its originality and vision, even fifty years later.
It’s a pity that, at least in this instance, the current Opera House administration doesn’t wish to or is unable to match his vision.
More food for thought.