Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Music Lane ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

In love with Bosendorfer

Last night I went to see a wonderful young Austrian pianist, Gerda Struhal perfrom at the Austrian Embassy and the sound she produced with the Bosendorfer was mind-blowing. My wife, who is an amateur pianist agreed. When we got home she said she didn't want to play the piano at home anymore. We go to a lot of classical concerts on a regular basis, but I don't recall being quite this enamoured with the sound of a piano before. It helped that this pianist was very good indeed. Her rendition of the Chopin Preludes was nothing short of fantastic. Quite a contrast from Jeffrey Kahane, whom we went to see last Sunday and actually left during intermission because he was so, so bad. This guy couldn't play Faure to save his life.To make matters worse, he attempted to play the evocative Albeniz Iberia, which almost prompted me to yell out, "get off the stage, you suck". Very disappointing. Contrastingly, Gerda Struhal is much less known than Kahane, but her Haydn sonata had the right lightness of touch, her Brahms Op. 119 was full of passion and depth, and her Chopin, as I said was powerful and moving.

Luckily for me, the Ms. Struhal had brought along a few copies of her CD of the Preludes, recorded on some obscure label called Gramolo. I am listening to that CD right now and the recording of the piano sound is also spectacular. The finale of the Preludes is earth-shattering. the recording is just a tad bit forward sounding, but the full dynamic range of the piano is captured brilliantly. Those bass notes seem to be emanating from the deepest chasms of the earth. This might become my reference disc for the piano sound.

With Steinway's dominating the concert scene, I am now disappointed that there aren't more Bosendorfers being used in concert venues. I was just in awe of that Bosendorfer sound last night.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Schiit Audio  

Topic - In love with Bosendorfer - Beethoven 13:22:36 11/15/02 (56)
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]