Topic: my dream instrument...

i would pay "lots" of money to have this instrument modeled in Pianoteq ~ Liszt's 1846 Boisselot

http://www.sofronitsky.com/upload/menu/items/prev/c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b6c8349cc7260ae62e3b1396831a8398fd8a6ad069f03126bf5805d6ed0bd27ec.png

of which builder Paul McNulty has done a masterful recreation: http://luxurypianos.eu/boisselot/

the piano which [Liszt] used for his 1847 Russian tour, and thereafter kept in his Weimar house for almost 40 years, writing years later to Boisselot that this piano was still his daily partner in his ‘battles with the music of the past, present and future.’  It [was] made at the order of Weimar Stiftung and [was] used for the 2011 Liszt bicentenary events. ... The original is now in our house; it is silent and will remain so for structural reasons, but it [was] my daily partner as I [built] my copy. Boisselot is unknown territory, but one thinks of Liszt’s ‘Totentanz’, which was revised in the period 1847-1853, as Liszt settled down in Weimar with his new piano.

and here's a tiny excerpt of McNulty's wife playing the instrument: https://youtu.be/r-LqGfUkN_M?t=523

In making the new instrument, Paul McNulty aim[ed] to satisfy the challenging proposition Anton Rubinstein made in 1892: “I believe that the instruments of all times had tone-colors and effects that we cannot produce on the pianoforte of today; that the compositions were always intended for the character of the instrument in use, and only on such could be heard fully as intended.
Played on the pianoforte of today would be heard to disadvantage… We can know nothing decidedly of the instruments of that day; even those to be found in the museums… give us no idea, since time would destroy the tone of a piano entirely beyond recognition. It is strange how little the professional instrument-makers know of these things!” Anton Rubinstein, Music and its Masters, 1892.

surely this would be a valuable and worthwhile addition to the Pianoteq stable?

Last edited by _DJ_ (04-03-2017 15:28)
Matthieu 7:6

Re: my dream instrument...

What can I say, I feel your pain.

And it's even got racing stripes, for goodness sakes !

StephenG