OK, let’s get back to some things musical, in particular how I would reinterpret some pieces on the Stuart piano. This is where the challenge lies with this piano – and the limitation is not so much with the fingers as with the grey matter in between the ears.
I’m currently planning another CD of music played on my Stuart piano. Whilst it will undoubtedly be a rather modest effort both in terms of performing standard and complexity, nonetheless it will give me an opportunity to explore different ways of playing some pieces quite properly regarded at standards for their time.
Take, for example, La Cathédrale Engloutie by Claude Debussy. I use the extra bass notes and the four pedals as follows:
• 01-15: Dolce and Una Corda pedals both down
• 01-04: Bass notes in LH played one octave lower
• 05-13: Ring the bells cleanly
• 16: Una Corda up, Dolce still down. Play very quietly at the beginning
• 20: Dolce up. Build up the power to Bar 22
• 23-28: More power up to Bar 25. Hit the LH very hard up to Bar 28
• 28: Bass C is held with the Sostenuto pedal.
• 28-39: Don’t bounce the chords – play sustained
• 42: Sostenuto pedal up, dolce pedal down
• 42-45: Bass notes in LH played one octave lower
• 44: Add in Una Corda – keep until ‘pp’ in bar 53
• 47-61: Bass G# doubled in bass right through to bar 61
• 53-58: Dolce pedal down (una corda up)
• 59-65: Dolce and una corda up
• 60: Double the bass crotchets, build up force to bar 61
• 65: Dolce pedal down
• 66: Una corda down on bass G# - hold both until end of piece
• 66-70: Double bass in LH, add in doubled C in RH (LH has to take the doubled C in Bar 69)
• 70-84: As quiet as possible. Bass rumble feel.
• 84-end: RH high chords slightly emphasized, bass chords very mellow
The result? Quite spectacular from all perspectives. Very, very quiet through to enormous power and majesty.
Arvo Pärt has written only a handful of works for the piano, but his piece “Für Alina” written in 1976 is a marvelous exploration of Gregorian sonorities for the piano. The recordings I’ve heard of this are not that impressive in my view – I’m not sure why but I just can’t seem to connect with them in any way. One thing about the recordings is that the piece is repeated, anything up for four times, with different octaves (up and down) in the right hand to what is written. So that got me thinking
• I have both the una corda and dolce pedals down throughout the piece.
• I have the damper pedal down throughout the piece.
• I play the piece twice – once as written, and then again with the right hand up an octave throughout the piece – yes, up a further octave.
This takes the piece into the extra high notes on the Stuart – above the 88 note mark. It requires very careful control and touch all of the time and very precise tuning to boot. The effect, together with the extraordinary bass resonance, is magical, to put it mildly. Brilliant stuff.
I have made a preliminary recording of this piece, and it is interesting that on my small speakers, the upper notes sounded a bit out of tune, but Wayne has played my recording on high-quality speakers and tells me the tuning is spot on. Obviously at that frequency my speakers are not reproducing the pitch exactly.
The Stuart piano was designed with these in mind. It is perfectly acceptable to adapt music to the new environment and produce music that is ethereal at one end of the spectrum through to church organ-like power, sustain and resonance at the other, coupled with the enhanced range of the piano.
Welcome to the 21st century.