Monday, October 7, 2013
Forte Piano
This weekend I wandered into a piano store and had a chat with the owner, Vladimir.
We started out looking at the less expensive pianos that are "production-made with technology" and moved onto the older, pricier versions.
He asked what I wanted to hear and I offered, Beethoven. He played something sad and so lovely. It immediately changed the way I felt.
Piano after piano, he played more and more. The sound from the Bosendorfers, Schimmels and Steinways was rich, clear and full. Much different from the production-made versions.
Vladimir explained it's because their soundboards are made from trees in the region between Italy and Switzerland. They absorb water in a certain way and achieve a specific density. They take years to cultivate and it's felt in the sound they produce.
I asked Vladimir where he'd learned to play.
He said when he was a 4-year-old boy in the Georgian section of the former Soviet Union, his parents realized he was musically talented. So they sent him to learn from a teacher who was, "a very good person, but not a good teacher."
Vladimir said with regret that he'd lost crucial formative years with a teacher who taught by ear, rather than by reading music properly.
He didn't say, but I could tell he wondered where he would be had he gotten instruction proportionate to his level of talent.
I asked him if he had ever been a concert pianist. He said he performs with his own group, to 400 to 500 people per performance.
I thought this was great. He gets to do what he loves. What fills him up. But still, it didn't seem enough for him.
He'd been a conductor in Rome. And now sells pianos in New Jersey.
What does make one happy, if not the ability to do what you love, and have your talent recognized?
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Did you intentionally mean to juxtapose forte (loud) with piano (soft)? It seems like Vladamir is holding back his strength. The roar within (forte) is being unnecessarily tamed (piano) by circumstance, no?
ReplyDeleteHe might have had a poor teacher, but how does he know that this did not make him a better piano player. Often kids become bored with the tedious memorization of scales and the chore of learning to read classical music. Maybe his teacher, by being a good person, nurtured his love of music. Who knows?
Going from composing music to selling pianos does seem like quite the unfortunate slide. If he wants to be more active in playing and composing music, I hope he does everything in his power to go for it. He should play forte; not piano. We all should.
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ReplyDeleteIn the morning, I'd had a conversation with someone and he said the word, "piano." And I mentioned to him that the term piano in Italian is actually, "pianoforte", or, softhard. Then, without looking for a piano store, we found one, and we went in. The name of the store is Forte Piano.
ReplyDeleteI asked Vladimir why he called it Forte Piano, and I guess he didn't understand that I was asking why he'd switched the terms. He said it was basically two musical terms, hard and soft, and I didn't press any further.
You're right. The original piano teacher might have helped make him the conductor/pianist he is today. Who knows how it might have turned out otherwise. It's unfortunate he has regret about it.
And I agree with you. We all should definitely play forte, not piano!