I’ve mentioned before that one of the main tasks for someone who wants to get the best out of a Stuart piano (or any other piano for that matter, but I’m focusing on the Stuart here) has to learn how to listen to what he or she is playing as distinct from merely hearing what is played. One needs to analyse the sound that is coming back – the harmonies, the sustains, the tone, the volume – all of these together go to make up the whole of the musical experience.
When one does this, it is not unusual to find that the music which is coming out is totally different to anything that you’ve played before – as I’ve said many times, on this piano you really do need to reinvent the way you play.
I’ve been tinkering over the last few days with some transcriptions of J.S.Bach chorales by composers/pianists such as Margaret Sutherland, Edward Krish and Alexander Siloti, who as well as his well-known Prelude in B Minor also did a very effective transcription of the Air from the Orchestral Suite No 2. All are, not unexpectedly, slow and sonorous pieces, but what has surprised me is the effectiveness of the Stuart piano in being able to bring out not only the sonorities but also the harmonies, the counterpoint, the depth of the keyboard from the bass through to the treble and the marvelous way in which Bach uses the bass as a sustained counterpoint to what else is going on.
Add into that the marvellous clarity of even the lowest bass notes, the dynamic range and tonal variation the piano allows you and you end up with a sound that is very organ-like in terms of its grandeur, power and tonal variation.
I realise that Wayne designed these pianos in the first place to take advantage of and to provide a voice for 20th and 21st century music, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that this piano also allows for effective and dynamic interpretations of much more music than that. Bach’s music is so versatile in that respect – from the original Moog recordings of Walter Carlos to explorations of fugues by traditional Japanese instruments there is much to be gleaned.
I’ve added a few more pieces to my recording wish list.