Entries by Dr Christopher Moore

…when I forsake my classical roots as a pianist and join David and some of his friends in our annual event helping to raise a (hopefully) considerable amount of money for homeless and orphan children in Vietnam. David has upped the ante this year by deciding to do some ‘smoooooooth’ jazz, and I must admit that such things are not my forte and it has taken me a while to get to the stage where I can give a reasonably good imitation of being cool in the jazz sense.

This of course will not be on the Stuart, but on my Kurzweil keyboard which I have now had for two years and has been very useful in a myriad of ways during that time. Whilst I have mentioned before that it does not, of course, match the Stuart (it was never bought for that purpose) that is not intended to be a negative comment in any way. I can adjust to the different feel of the keyboard which is quite good for the music I will be playing (although it is certainly not suitable for things classical) and the sound in the context of a band and a function such as this is absolutely fine. And I can turn up the volume when I need to…

We will be playing at the beginning for about an hour or so and that will stretch David’s stamina on the saxophone, but by and large he is sounding good and has learnt to pace himself well so that he doesn’t run out of the proverbial puff at critical times. I know this can be a problem because I run into it with the cor anglais, probably attributable to my lack of fitness and advancing age, plus any other excuse I can think of at the time.

So I will need to pack the car with assorted instruments, amplifiers, microphones, leads, music stands and much other paraphernalia so beloved of a practising (and portable) musician. We’re expecting about 700 people to attend, and hope to raise more than the $20,000 raised last year.

Quite a commendable achievement by a group of very dedicated Vietnamese ladies.

The Dutch born Australian pianist Gerard Willems has just recorded Beethoven’s Thirty Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli on the 102-key Stuart piano, and has also recently performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no.1 in C major with the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra in the Great Hall at Sydney University, a venue I know very well having been a student there all those years ago.

Radio and Television coverage of these was actually very good, and may be found here in audio form (please ignore the obvious and somewhat annoying name mispronunciations) and a report from the ABC’s 7.30 Report here.

All very positive, and Willems makes a number of very salient points regarding the sound of the piano and why he plays the way he does. He uses the term ‘spring clean’ in the context of the renewal of the music and this is something that I have been very vocal about since I first acquired the piano – any attempt to play music in the same way as would be played on a ‘standard’ piano just will not work. You have to reinvent the way you play, and if you do that successfully the music too is reinvented and renewed.

The main problem is, as always, the innate conservatism of the piano listening public, and the majority of pianists who are stuck in a groove of their own experiences and refuse to admit that the pianistic world has passed them by and they are now floundering in a sea of memories – looking for comfort in a world which in many other spheres is no longer anything like it was.

Many people will never understand the why’s and wherefore’s, the principles and the ethos of these pianos. They don’t realise that things can change, and for the better. Music can be reinvented in ways that previous generations and indeed the composers themselves never imagined – because the tools just weren’t there.

Many more people have now seen and heard the Ultimate Piano ™ thanks to the above broadcasts. It remains to be seen whether this will herald a new appreciation of how music and the piano can and should develop, or whether the Steinways of this world will simply allow piano music to stagnate much as it has for many years now.

Conservatism is not part of my musical vocabulary.

Next month marks the fifth anniversary of my acquisition of a 97-key 2.2 metre Stuart & Sons grand piano. So it seemed appropriate that I write something of a report card on the current status of the piano, my playing and other relevant bits and pieces.

The piano is still in absolutely pristine condition as though it had just come out of the factory. The huon pine veneer has matured beautifully, and is now a somewhat richer golden colour than when I first acquired it. The interior of the piano looks and feels exactly like it did when I first played it at the factory five years ago.

The sound if anything is better now than at any stage of my ownership. The piano has settled down well as one would expect, and the action, dampers, hammers etc are virtually as new. In fact, this piano could be sold as a new piano and no-one would be able to tell the difference. The action is still very precise and even over the entire keyboard, and there is, as always, no discernable tonal breaks or differences throughout the range.

The tuning stability is still outstanding, and in reality the piano needs tuning only once per year at this stage. Even then, the tonal drop is only a matter of one or two cents at the most, and some slight adjustment in some unisons is all that required to bring it back to scratch again. Even the extra bass and treble notes are stable over long periods of time.

From a personal point of view, I still get a buzz simply by sitting down at the piano. My enthusiasm to play a piano has for most of my life exceeded my ability to play it, but I’m finding that my fingers are in better shape now at my advanced age than at any time I can remember. My eyesight is still a problem, but then again it always has been and always will be – I simply have had to get used to it. The extra notes as I have said many times are no problem to me at all, and I am finding more and more that selective use of them can add immeasurably to all kinds of music, from classical through to modern.

I fully understand the piano now – I know what it is capable of doing and I’m much better at getting that out of the piano than I used to be. My trips to the factory to play the latest Stuart pianos have added to that understanding, and I’m able to translate all of that into the sound coming out of my piano.

The piano has been everything I expected of it when I first acquired it, and more, much more. It has opened up myriad new sensations, interpretations and performance possibilities that I have not been able to reproduce on any other make of piano – and I’ve played quite a few now. Each time, whilst I appreciated the qualities of all high quality pianos I have played, I found myself coming back to the Stuart simply to prove time and time again that I can do things with this piano that I just can’t do with the others.

Music has, as I get older, become much more important to me and there is no doubt that my acquisition of the Stuart, mad and emotional though it seemed at the time, has been the cornerstone of my music for the last five years, and there is no doubt that it will continue to be so until the day when I can play no more.

… is very difficult to reproduce in recordings for a number of reasons, in my experience including;

• The huge dynamic range of the instrument
• The tendency of recording (and mixing) engineers to equalise out the bass and treble, as well as limiting the dynamic range
• The quality and positioning of the microphones

I have, as has been detailed in this blog, on a number of occasions now recorded both my (at home) and other (at the factory) Stuart pianos and given my limited technical knowledge and recording gear, not to mention my limitations as a pianist, the sound has come out very well overall and people can clearly hear the qualities of the instrument as measured against what I might call the ‘status quo’ piano technology.

I am not an audiophile by any means, but I appreciate there are people with much more sensitive ears than mine who are capable of analysing the subtleties and nuances of recording and playback in a more sophisticated way, and those of such skill who have recorded the Stuart piano have produced sounds which quite frankly amaze me in terms of their clarity and quality.

The latest effort I’ve heard is no exception.

This is the latest demonstration CD from Stuart & Sons, recorded on the 2.2m and 2.9m 102-note pianos by Bill Risby and Kevin Hunt, both very well known jazz and improvisatory pianists, each of whom has a very good appreciation of the capability of the pianos, and also, of course, the ability to put this into practice.

I have to say, despite my obvious biases, that the sound is quite incredible. I would seriously advise anyone with an interest in pianos to contact Stuart & Sons via their website, and ask them to send out a copy of the CD. Play it on a good set of speakers, and turn the sound up. Some of it will send shivers down your spine in a way that you haven’t experienced before.

The argument concerning the why’s and wherefore’s of extended keyboards is indeed not a new one, and indeed the publishing of music for extended keyboards is not, and one suspects never has been, without risk.

The eminent Bohenian pianist Jan Ladislav Dussek spent some eleven years in London, in part as a refugee from the French Revolution where he was unpopular with the regime at that time. He was, as well as being a pioneer of performance practice (he was, for example, the first to sit sideways to the audience so they could admire his profile), instrumental in advancing the limitations of piano design, as the following extract from Grove’s Dictionary of Musicians indicates:

“While in London he also encouraged the firm of Broadwood to extend the range of the piano – in 1791 from five to five and a half octaves, and in 1794 to six octaves. Compositions written for the extended keyboard were said to be for ‘piano with additional keys’; many compositions of this period were published with two versions for the right hand, so that they could be performed ‘with or without the additional keys’.”

It was a piano of this range that John Broadwood sent to Beethoven as a gift in 1817, and much of Beethoven’s later piano work was written for this instrument. Interestingly, after Beethoven's death, the music publisher Spina bought the Broadwood at the sale of the composer's effects. Spina later gave the instrument to Franz Liszt - a fitting recipient, for it was very likely the Broadwood that Liszt had played for Beethoven when taken to see him as a child-prodigy. Liszt kept the Broadwood when he lived in Weimar, where it remained until his death in 1886. The following year his estate donated it to the Magyar Nemzeti Muzeum (Hungarian National Museum) in Budapest, where it remains today.

From that point on, the keyboard range of the piano increased slowly but surely as the following table will indicate:

Date________________Keyboard Range
1794 to approx. 1804___6 octaves C1 to c4.
1804 to approx. 1824___6 octaves F1 to f4.
1804 to approx. 1860___6 octaves & 4th C1 to f4
1860 to approx. 1880___7 octaves A2 to a4
1880 to approx. 1900___88 keys A2 to c5 (today’s standard)
1900________________97 keys 8 octaves CCC to c5 (some specialised pianos, very rare)

So the concept of a ‘standard’ piano key range is not a ‘standard’ at all, but merely a convention forced upon pianists by manufacturers. My first two pianos (and that of my music teacher) were 85-note pianos, and it wasn’t until I was comparatively advanced as a pianist that I was given an 88-note piano. Now, of course, I have a 97-note piano and have played the ‘ultimate’ 102-note Stuart grand piano on a number of occasions.

I cannot for the life of me understand why pianists are critical of extended range pianos. Two reasons seem to be paramount:

1) There is very little music written for them, so what’s the point?
2) I get confused because the ends of the keyboard are not what I’m used to

Both are easily debunked. There is very little music because these instruments are not common. Whilst the Bosenyamaha Imperial has been around for a while now, it does not appear to have caught the imagination of composers much at all, quite possibly because there are so few of them in the concert halls of the world. The advent of the Stuart, with its new sound envelope and performance paradigm, is the one piano which is capable of meeting the challenges of modern 21st century piano music, but can also be adapted to the classical repertoire (including the extended range where appropriate) without any issues other than the infamous ‘it’s not a bloody Steinway’ syndrome.

The second is purely the limitation of the pianist, and his/her reliance on the physical size of the keyboard, and hence inability (or unwillingness in many cases) to adapt. The Bosenyamaha trick of discolouring the extra notes is a thinly disguised homage to that restriction and is a total anathema to the Stuart paradigm as I have said on a number of occasions now.

One wonders whether Dussek and Broadwood changed the colour of their extra keys to warn the innocent victims of their technological prowess. I know Beethoven was deaf, but he certainly wasn’t blind. I only wish pianists today shared his enthusiasm for the new order.

One of the criticisms levelled at pianos such as the Stuart which feature keys above and below the ‘standard’ 88-key range (A1-C8) is that there is little or no music written for such a range, therefore why worry about the extra keys.

In fact, pianos with extended ranges (normally the bass, but also the treble) have been known since the mid-1800’s. Henri Pape (the inventor of the overstrung piano) made an eight octave piano from F0 to F8 above the usual C8 around 1840. And in the same period, Johann Peter Pixis wrote a piece with the use of this high F. (I haven’t been able to locate this yet). Henri Herz (inventor of the whippen spring, pianist, composer and piano builder) produced a concert grand of 90 keys from G0 to C8. And there are others. From a compositional viewpoint, Busoni, Bartok in a concerto, Dukas in his famous Sonate, Maurice Ohanna in one of his 24 Préludes, Maurice Ravel in "Barque sur l'océan" have used an expanded keyboard.

The 102-note Stuart piano (C0-F8) is the only full-range piano currently being manufactured – full range in the sense that this range is seen as the (current) practical limit for an acoustic piano from both a technical and acoustic viewpoint.

Writing music for such an extended range is actually now much more accessible than it used to be given the plethora of electronic keyboards now available. Indeed, it is now possible to produce a ‘piano’ sound over the entire human auditory range – certainly a much greater range than any acoustic piano would be able to do. So, technically, one can write for any range one wishes to take.

But then, what is the next step? How to perform it, and how does it sound? All electronic keyboards I have seen have 88-notes or less, so as a live performance instrument the entire 102-note range of the Stuart is not available. It is certainly possible to transpose the entire keyboard up or down as much as you like, so whilst the 102-note range is covered, only 88 notes of that range are available at any one time. If the music is notated electronically, then MIDI playback can play as great a range as is physically possible on such a keyboard, but you lack the live performance dynamics.

There is another issue which really strikes at the heart of what is being attempted here. An electronic instrument will normally transpose by applying an appropriate frequency modification to the patch stored in the instrument. Even more sophisticated systems will need to provide some sort of predictive algorithm to try to produce a note with the ‘right’ frequency response. And that is where the problem lies – because the actual frequency response of the very low notes on an acoustic piano bears no resemblance to the higher notes which would be used as a template to be modified in an electronic piano, i.e. the FAT (Frequency/Amplitude/Time) envelopes are totally different.

This means that not only is the sound going to be invalid, but also the interactions of that sound with other frequencies will also be invalid – so you will never get the genuine sound of an acoustic piano, and you will never get the FAT of the total piano experience with an electronic instrument.

So, yes, music can be written for extended range pianos. Bear in mind, however, that it just not a case of writing the notes – anyone can do that. It is critical in this day and age to write for the sound of the instrument – the attack, the decay, the frequency envelope. And in live performance, where the pianist needs to be in total control of mind, body and instrument – an electronic instrument just will not do. It has to be acoustic, and at this time, the Stuart piano is the only piano which is specifically designed for such a task.

No matter what is out there, everyone will have a different opinion on its worth. I have no problems about this, but it does worry me when any view is expressed without a reasonable amount of knowledge, analysis and logic. Not that I succeed in this all the time, of course, but I think I succeed many more times than I fail in this regard.

Take this example from the Pianoworld fora: “Also, I disliked the extra keys. It became a distraction when doing large jumps. Most of us are used to calculating our hand position based on position of the edge of the keyboard. It was weird hitting octaves that are usually at the bottom of the keyboard.”

So what this pianist is saying is that he is unable to adjust to the extra keys, so they shouldn’t be there. Never mind the sound, or the extra capabilities those keys allow. The fact that he cannot adjust is surely his problem, and not the fault of the piano. It implies that pianos will always have 88 keys until the end of time because we’re too stuck in our ways to change. It’s like saying I don’t like a five speed gearbox on a car because I’m used to a four speed gearbox and therefore the fifth gear is useless because it confuses me.

This attitude is symptomatic of what I might call the ‘status quo’ syndrome which seems to permeate piano performance and basically stultifies any development of the piano, either artistic or technical. The point of the Stuart piano is that it is different, and therefore all of the old pianistic paradigms, both technical and artistic, have to be thrown out of the window. If you have to change the way you play, so be it. The Stuart piano absolutely demands that you do. If you can’t, that is your failure to do so, not the failure of the piano.

The fact that extra keys are so worrisome to the majority is symptomatic of this syndrome. Bosendorfers have their extra bass keys in different colours so that pianists can avoid them like the plague. They may as well not be there because the psychology of the piano is telling the pianist ‘don’t touch me – I’m unclean’. The psychology of the Stuart is clear – either accept what I am and tackle my challenges head on or else go back into your little Steinwegian square and vegetate.

Stuart pianos make unprecedented demands on the pianist. They are asked to forget the status quo and let their skills and imagination loose on a totally new way of playing piano music - not just new music but the entire piano repertoire. The quotee exampled above obviously didn’t understand what he was playing and consequently was chained to an outdated and antiquated paradigm, and proceeded to complain because he couldn’t adjust.

The pianist is the problem, not the piano.

My son, delightful person that he is, nonetheless is, like his father, capable of flights of extreme madness and irrationality. Just on three years ago now, flush with success in terms of making musical sounds out of something he called a saxophone, he challenged me to learn another instrument. I accepted his challenge, foolish me, and proceeded to acquire a cor anglais, or English horn for those who don’t know what cor anglais means. Not only that, but I also acquired a bit later an oboe – both instruments had really been on my wish list for some considerable time.
Of course, I never was good at anything wind related, at least out of the front part of my digestive system, and as a result went through periods of extreme musical and physical torture as I tried to make sense of something which my brain just couldn’t comprehend.

I began to hate my son…

My current teacher has been very patient with me and believes that we are finally beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Double reed instruments are notoriously difficult on which to control the pitch, and it has taken me much effort to finally understand how to adjust the reed and get the right sort of reed in the first place so that now, at least 99% of the time, I can get the right pitch – meaning that it doesn’t sound flat any more and can now blend with other instruments without sounding like a cat on a hot tin roof, or similar animalistic similes.

My main problem remains the fifth finger on my right hand, which has always lacked the control and flexibility of my other fingers, so C# is an absolute pain and no matter how hard I try I just can’t get it right. I still think it’s a design flaw in the instrument, but after 250 years of oboes who am I to complain.

Both instruments are now sounding quite musical, which is a relief to all of us, and I now use both quite regularly when we play music in church together, which means that in terms of instruments we are now quite flexible in what and how we play.

I don’t hate my son any more…

… basically because I didn’t have anything new and on value to add to what I have already written in this blog. Now I have a bit, and so here I am again.

I spent a week in the Philippines recently with my family, and spent some time island hopping in Coron, which was a really relaxing and pleasant experience. I also had to opportunity to visit a friend of my uncle’s, who lived in a 130 year old Spanish hacienda in Batangas City, about two hours drive south of Manila.

This friend was a piano aficionado, and had just bought a 2.2 metre Bosendorfer grand piano less than a year previously. Of course I was pressed into playing, and did a reasonable job given that I wasn’t prepared for it and my memory is lousy anyway as I’ve noted before. Of course, it was a very good piano but I found it difficult physically to play, and I soon found out why that was. The piano needed voicing, and tuning as well if I could be picky. The action was a bit uneven and I found I couldn’t get the control I knew that the piano was capable of. Naturally, I impressed upon the owner the need for such regulatory work, and I would imagine that by the time I get back there again (and I promised I would try to get back there next year) the piano will be in much better shape.

However, when I went downstairs, I noticed another grand piano which was covered up. In fact, my uncle’s friend had five grand pianos, the other three were Yamahas. I had a sneak look at this piano, and was surprised to find that it was a Steinway Model M. The serial number indicated it was made in 1936.

Once again, it needed work on it in terms of voicing and tuning, but playing it was a much more pleasurable experience than playing the Bosendorfer – the piano seemed to my fingers to be much more manipulatable, if readers can understand what I mean. I impressed on my host the importance of this piano and he agreed to have it worked on – it was in a good enough condition that it didn’t need restoring in any significant way. What I also suggested was that he transport the Steinway upstairs and place it next to the Bosendorfer. The resut could be some very interesting one and two piano recitals.

The morals of the story are plural. Firstly, especially in the Philippines with the extremes of heat and humidity (this room was air-conditioned, but even so) it is really necessary to look after top quality pianos. The Bosendorfer did suffer as a result. But, then again, I would rate the Steinway as a better instrument. It is perhaps significant that this was a pre-WW2 Steinway, and certainly anecdotally I’ve heard that modern Steinways don’t match the older ones in terms of quality. I will look forward to playing it once I get back there.

Now some of you may think I’m being a traitor to the cause – after all I have said that I find it difficult to play other pianos than a Stuart because I’m used to the sound and feel now, and that does remain the case. But a good piano is still a good piano, and whilst I still prefer the Stuart over all the pianos I have played, but doesn’t stop me from ‘reverting’ every now and again and showing that I can adjust as the occasion demands. Obviously I cannot play much of the music I play on the Stuart on the Bosendorfer or Steinway – it just doesn’t suit. But playing these pianos, good as they are, really does confirm for me how good the Stuart is.

Two weeks ago I experienced something mind-blowing that I thought people should be aware of.

I have just played the Ultimate Piano (™)

Now before anyone jumps up and down on me for having been injected with a near fatal dose of marketing jingoism of the worst kind, let me assure you that this is not the case - I am a trained research scientist and able to make reasonably objective judgements about things, especially music. So let me repeat in totally non-emotional and objective language -

I have just played the Ultimate Piano (™)

I visited the Stuart & Sons Piano factory in Newcastle to play their latest pianos - and let me tell you these are something to behold. These are the world's only currently manufactured 102-key grand pianos. The new Reference series Stuart & Sons Concert Grand Piano (2.9m) and Studio Grand Piano (2.2m) have pushed the frequency boundaries for the acoustic piano to the limits CCC (or C0) @ 16.3516Hz to f5 (or F8) @ 5587.6517Hz. These ultimate grand pianos are designed and handcrafted not only for a new and exciting experience in the interpretation of the 'standard' piano repertoire, but also, and uniquely, for the vertical dimension of sound which has been the bedrock of music composition since the Impressionists. The extended frequency range, the dynamic sensitivity and sustain opens the way to a whole new experience in piano performance craft not possible on any other piano. Stuart & Sons recognises that since the introduction of the Bosendorfer Imperial grand that C0 is the lowest key to be found on a piano. There is repertoire which embraces this lower frequency range but until now only Bosendorfer have met the keyboard challenge. Stuart says that the successful employment of special wire from Stephen Paulello in France has enabled the design of the 2.2m 102-key piano as modern high-tensile music wire can not be used successfully for low tension scales.

The first three ultimate grands are hot off the press with two instruments 'seasoning' in the performance room where they will undergo further adjustment and refinement as they settle and acclimatise to their environment. Even at this early stage the sound was quite extraordinary and certainly much better than any piano I have played to this point in time.

What do they look like? Like all of his pianos, beautifully finished and absolutely stunning in a satin finished East Indian rosewood. Veneers up to 500mm wide are quite magnificnetly matched across the lid.



The studio grand piano is the only 2.2m 102 note piano ever to have been built as a serious musical instrument.



A close up of the sub-contra octave bass strings is provided here



With the interior view, it can the clearly seen that the sub-contra octave bass strings really do take up all of the length of the piano.



The whole instrument is an imposing and incredible piece of work. This is a piano that up to now people have only dreamed of, and to have experienced it in reality is a life experience for me.

But even better than it looks, is the way it plays and sounds. Sound samples have already been provided at www.pianophilia.com

This piano puts to the sword the contention that innovation in the acoustic piano is moribund. It further redefines the possibilities of the acoustic piano for the 21st century and provides the final nail in the coffin of the incessant reproduction of proven form that has dominated the acoustic piano for the past century. When Nietzche said 'God is dead' many would say he was wrong. If I were to say that 'Steinway is dead', I don't think I would be.

…since I added anything to this blog, simply because during that time I didn’t really have anything earth-shattering to say and I didn’t want to waste bandwidth in spouting a whole load of noise.

But last month was an interesting anniversary for me. It was the 50th anniversary of my starting to learn the piano, and looking back over what I can remember of those fifty years its quite clear to me that, after my family of course, music has been the one thing that has held me together for all of that time.

My eye is quite stable after the cataract operation and I will need one final operation later in the year to finish things off, and then hopefully any operation I need in the future will not be on the eye.

After many ups and downs I’ve finally begun to make serious progress with the oboe and cor anglais, and I’ve arranged to be taught by one of the best players in the Australia – I imagine this will really a test of patience. I’ve actually played the instruments a couple of times during masses that David and I have played together, and whilst the volume is OK (that oboe is loud!) my pitch is a bit wonky and that is something which will be a focus over the next few weeks and months.

On the Stuart front, I’m doing another fundraising recital in October, playing Schubert (the Sonata in B flat D960) and works by Tan Dun and the unknown until now Ukrainian composer Javid Artoghrul. It’s quite a major undertaking for me, and I must admit I will need to work hard to get it right. So far, I rate myself about 60% overall, which of course is not good enough.

As a result, my re-recording has not yet occurred, but I plan to finish it off after the recital since I hope my overall skill level might be better then.

So it’s all hands on deck, as it were. Much fun.

… and I had a good time playing lots of old-time R’n’R in front of what was really a very appreciative audience last Saturday night. Considering it was the first such concert I’d been part of in what passes as my professional life I was quite happy with the overall effort and friends and relatives who were there were quite complimentary and had a good time into the bargain.

I used the Kurzweil keyboard, and that stood up to my shenanigans very well as I expected it to, and the sound coming out was pretty good into the bargain. There was a Yamaha baby grand there I could have played but I needed more sounds that just a piano and it probably wouldn’t have fitted onto the stage with all the PA gear and drum kits etc that even these days are part and parcel of such shows.

My son used his high definition video camera to record the show (in 5.1 surround sound, yet…) and I type this my computer still has over three hours to go (after already spending 17!) in rendering the output into a video file I can play on the computer, and then I’ll create a DVD so that we can go back and see where things can improve. I know one bit already – there’s one spot where I’m one beat ahead of everyone else – how that happened I have no idea

On the Stuart front, things are progressing reasonably well and whilst I’m still not sure when I’m going to be comfortable recording again that should happen sooner rather than later. The piano is sounding good as usual and my fingers are comfortable, which is something that not always happens but when it does it’s a sign that at least mentally I’m feeling at ease.

The only small cloud on the horizon is the, whilst my eye has been stable now for quite a while, a full-fledged cataract has formed and that will be operated on next week. These operations are pretty routine now and I don’t anticipate any real problems, but it pays not to take things for granted in life as I’ve discovered many times.

… people’s attitudes to various things surprise, and not often positively either. I’ve always felt that it is very difficult to convince people that something new is worthwhile since people are normally stuck inside their own little square and nothing you say or do will convince them to change that in any meaningful way.

I’ve found this to especially true with the Stuart piano – people tend to have entrenched positions when it comes to discussing the pros and cons of the beast, and quite often I’ve found these positions are ‘protected’ as it were by an attitude and demeanour bordering on arrogance and in no way based upon any meaningful or intelligent thought.

Wayne dropped in last week to make sure the piano was in good shape since I’m getting into recording mode again. Apart from replacing one hammer which was ‘clicking’ and probably a bit loose, the rest of the voicing required very little adjustment and the tuning was still spot on. The overall stability of the piano never ceases to impress. But I digress …

He had just come back from the Canberra International Music Festival, which amongst other things showcased some outstanding piano music by the contemporary Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, of the clan of the same name. What was just as impressive in his view was the way the two Dutch pianists took to the instrument and used them (this was for two pianos) to their maximum advantage to bring out the power, complexity and at other times subtlety of the music. The musicians’ considered view was that no other piano could do nearly as good a job at the Stuart, and I can believe that – their views are not unique by any means.

Contrast this with some of the other pianists on show who seemed to think that you can transpose how you play a Steinway onto a Stuart and came up so far short it just wasn’t funny, and then, ignoring their own limitations which were obvious to all who listened, blamed the piano. Particularly disturbing was the Canberra piano student who, never having either seen, heard or played a Stuart piano before, rubbished the whole thing – “You can keep the piano – it’s no good”. Politeness prevents me from responding in print.

It is very sad when peoples’ minds are so closed and shuttered that they are unable to see either side of the straight and narrow. Even more so, when students of a reputable school of music disparage works and instruments which are at the top of the tree and at the forefront of classical music making in the modern world.

… but that doesn’t mean I’ve been idle – far from it in fact. I’ve been continuing the practice of the pieces I’ve recorded previously, and will start to rerecord them next week, all going well.

I’ve also got back into some ‘mainstream’ repertoire, and the Schubert Sonata in B Flat, D960 is beginning to take on some serious shape – although with a work of this magnitude and complexity it will be a while before I’m even remotely satisfied with what I’m doing. But at least I’ve made a start and there is no doubt that the piano suits the music (and vice versa!) to a tee. The piece covers a magnitude of emotions and moods but I’m finding, as I would expect, that I’m able to use the full dynamic and tonal range of the Stuart to its best advantage here.

Once again, a poke in the eye for all those people say ‘You can’t play such and such on the Stuart’ etc etc.

I’m also doing a one-off show with my brother-in-law’s band to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly. I wouldn’t consider myself a rock musician by any stretch of the imagination and the majority of ‘pop’ music in general leaves me cold, but the music is not complex and being very experienced as I am in playing in bands and accompanying singers and other musicians, fitting in is not a problem.

Anyhow, it’s fun.

Unfortunately I can’t take the Stuart piano with me, so I’m stuck with the Kurzweil keyboard. You can’t have everything, I suppose.

… , at least in things musical, is something that I’ve been doing nearly all of my life. I seem to remember that my first ‘performance’ as it were was on a ukulele at the age of eight, and that was around the time I was crazy enough to answer ‘Yes’ when my mother asked if I wanted to learn the piano.

I’ve come a long way since then of course, my first piano was one which we brought out from England with us because we couldn’t sell it there, and in fact we kept it in our garage of all places because we couldn’t fit it in the house. Now of course I have the Stuart sitting in my music room and certainly I would suggest that that is an improvement over my humble beginnings in this regard – albeit some 50 years or so afterwards.

I have mentioned before that the Stuart piano is so clear and precise that it emphasises everything I do wrong, and I must admit that I do quite a few things wrong when I play. Whilst I can get away with this to an extent when I record my playing, in the sense that I can go back and correct things, strictly speaking I can’t do that when I perform in public. Since I have begun to get back into such performances, it is clear that I need to really focus on that aspect of my playing and that is what I have been doing over the last few days.

I plan another fundraising concert in the beginning of July, and so I have set myself the target of really trying to eliminate as many errors, glitches and uncertainties as I can. This will have an important bearing on my recordings going forward.

In order to really set a standard, I’ve been recording my playing on video. Obviously, in video recording WYSIWYG with a vengeance and any little imperfections, particularly on this piano, become glaringly obvious.

So I’ve been recording myself in glorious high-definition 1080p using my son’s video recorder. At the same time, I’ve recorded the audio on my digital recording setup in CD quality sound. I then replaced the video sound (which is actually quite good from this camera) with this audio. It’s a bit tricky to get the synchronisation right, and when I play the rendered file back on my computer it looks as though the sound is coming out very slightly ahead of the video, but it turns out that this is because my graphics card cannot handle 1080p + the audio that well. I have made a DVD of what I have done so far, and the synchronisation is exactly right. Of course the sound is very good, and overall I must admit I’ve done a good job on the pieces so far.

But I have a long way to go before I’m really happy with the outcomes, but at least I’ve made a start in the right direction and this will only push me harder over the coming weeks, and hopefully higher as well.

It’s beginning to sound as though I really am serious about this, finally. Confidence is good thing to have, and I must admit after many years I’m beginning to get it back again.