On Sunday I passed through the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall on my way to BART. On the 2nd floor I discovered a layout of more than a dozen pianos of various styles & sizes. I think it was for Steinway. Sadly, there was no one to actually play them. Seems a shame to lug all those pianos up there & not perform something interesting. How about Ballet Mécanique, & didn’t Liszt write something for multiple pianos? Then there’s Steven Reich’s thing for 6 pianos, & even Bach wrote a concerto for 4 harpsichords.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pianos Galore
On Sunday I passed through the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall on my way to BART. On the 2nd floor I discovered a layout of more than a dozen pianos of various styles & sizes. I think it was for Steinway. Sadly, there was no one to actually play them. Seems a shame to lug all those pianos up there & not perform something interesting. How about Ballet Mécanique, & didn’t Liszt write something for multiple pianos? Then there’s Steven Reich’s thing for 6 pianos, & even Bach wrote a concerto for 4 harpsichords.
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2 comments:
Were they all Steinway's? I saw the layout coming down the escalator after Turandot; and I could have sworn that I saw a Disclavier playing (by? with?) itself! As a point of fact, the Liszt piece is called "Hexameron;" and, unless I am mistaken, it is a (very?) grand fantasy on music from Bellini's I Puritani. "Ballet Mécanique," on the other hand, requires a "live" jet engine, which probably will not go down will with the Westfield tenants!
There were a couple of player pianos in the mix. I am not sure if they where all Steinways, actually. I wasn't even sure what the promotion was all about. There was quite a variety of instruments. There was also a professional photographer there taking pictures of the pianos.
Gosh, I don't see why anyone would object to a few tuned airplane propellers. Especially for art's sake.
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