"...I consider the piano extremely important. In my opinion it ranks highest in the instrumental hierarchy. It is the most widely cultivated and popular of all instruments. Its importance and popularity are due in part to the harmonic capability that it alone possesses, and consequently to its ability to recapitulate and concentrate all of musical art within itself. Within the span of its seven octaves it encompasses the audible range of an orchestra, and the ten fingers of a single person are enough to render the harmonies produced by the union of over a hundred concerted instruments.
Thus the piano has, on the one hand, the capacity to assimilate, to concentrate all musical life within itself and, on the other, its own existence, its own growth and individual development. ...its preeminence is unquestionably assured by both the number and the quality of the pieces written for it. Historical research would show us since its beginnings an uninterrupted succession not only of famous performers but also of transcendent composers who cultivated this instrument in preference to all others. The piano works of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber are not their least important claims to glory; they are an essential part of the legacy that has been left to us. These masters were remarkable pianists in their own day, and they never stopped composing for their preferred instrument."
Written by Franz Liszt in 1837
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Larry Lobel RPT
Petaluma, California
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