World Piano Day typically occurs on March 29, but this being a Leap Year, today, March 28 is it!
From the humble instrument of Italian, Bartolemo Christofori in 1707, to the sleek, powerful versions we see today the Piano remains a contemporary instrument. The King of Orchestral instruments it remains the Alpha in the room, bigger, more powerful, sophisticated and evolved than all others, and curiously, still evolving. On the latter note, we table for the Jury, Australian pianomaker Wayne Stuart's remarkable 108-key 'Big Beleura' grand piano. A magnificent statement of ambition, and stretching the boundaries of the instrument that has, largely, been unchanged since the last decades of the 1800s.
Although evolving in styling, finishing and tone the piano has been a primary musical vehicle of choice, since its early champions in Mozart and Beethoven, via the demigods of Liszt and Chopin and the legion of early Twentieth Century virtuosi such Paderewski, Rachmaninoff, Horowitz through to the current-day megastar Lang Lang, while not forgetting the popular music icons of their times such as Gershwin, Elton John or Billy Joel.
Throughout it all, although the piano may have changed shape outwardly, and the music itself has changed dramatically, the piano has remained relevant. In a way that no other musical instrument has done before or since, the piano has been part of our lives in the Home. The cornerstone of our home entertainment before 'Wireless' and the Talkies arrived, its existence threatened by television (and then colour, and the VCR, and the DVD, and Cable and ....), and then the home computer, no one has ever passed on their DVD player to a third generation. Nobody has ever said, at least, not in the last 50 years, "could I have grandma's black & white tv?"
But the piano?
Plenty of people have asked for exactly that. A connection with their family's past that isn't quite like anything else. A part of your family in a way that other things just, are not! And truly, what other working mechanism of any kind at 100 years of age can you sincerely hand to a descendant and say, "I'd like you to have this."?
If you, or your family hasn't started on this journey of piano ownership, the sharing of music within the home, and the joy of listening to your own child making music, it's never too late to start.
If on the other hand you're looking up from your iPad or phone at the old family piano that has reached the end of the road (and it does come to ALL pianos), explore the alternatives with us.
Growing numbers of people are seeking us out to re-purpose their multi-generational pianos that have come to the end of their working lives into something new for Their future. The connection can remain, the exterior familiar but different ... just no longer that silent brooding beast in the corner.
In the meantime, celebrate World Piano Day with us as the piano turns 317 years old, and still kicking the can down the road! Open up Youtube and pick a favourite. Beethoven. Bernstein. Brubeck, there's plenty of choice, and plenty of it is about Today. I'm going to listen to something invigorating by young German pianist Lucas Sestak. Who will be yours be?
Have a great day!
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