It's with very great pleasure that I can report total success of the Nice International Piano competition
https://www.concours-international-piano-nice-cote-dazur.com/ which has been conducted throughout at all stages.
In particular we saw how playing styles and associated musicianship shone through as performers discovered adaptation to the new dimensions that a good unequal temperament can access.
So many modern musicians and pianists have been having to battle with heavy machinery in terms of many heavy actions of many modern pianos, the worst leading to pianists hitting the keys, that there are different schools of thought now as to how one should play, whether deep in the keys or at times with what might seem a superficial touch on a good action to get the sound desired. This can split juries, but nevertheless, music emerges and the performers come out with an experience sometimes of magic.
A split as to how one should play Bach on the piano caused a dispute on the jury but the majority chose the 8 year old competitor from Romania in this instance whose playing I admired. Unbeknowing of the dispute, I had immediately gone outside and posed him a challenge. It turned out that his playing was inspired by enjoying Bach on the organ in the local Cathedral. I told him that as the piano I'd tuned was tuned as an organ, he could play Bach on the piano as on the organ in the cathedral. So I brought him back in and in front of the jury he played the piece holding the sustain down throughout on the one pedal. And it worked. The Jury were astounded and many never heard of such a thing before. They were won over and the President of the Jury for that day who'd voted in the minority against the lad came up to me and kissed me on the way out.
At the end, at the finals and Gala performance I'd tuned the Fazioli and the performers were rehearsing and a retired Radio France sound engineer came up to me saying that he'd never heard a piano like it before . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTDkj5dYYc is the final concert and at the end I've added the recording of young David Martinescu playing Bach on the organ.
We really can be more adventurous with tuning than Equal Temperament provides.
Best wishes
David P
------------------------------
David Pinnegar BSc ARCS
Hammerwood Park, East Grinstead, Sussex UK
antespam@gmail.comTransforming historical tuning for the modern piano . . .
------------------------------