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Hi-
Yesterday at Posthorn Recordings I used my new video camera, which has an external mic input, to record Steve Martorella (Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church in America) playing a few things including a nice "Aria" from the Goldberg Variations on the Stuart & Sons grand piano.
The mic was a Schoeps CMBI cardioid. I admit the lighting still needs work, but the sound is much improved over previous efforts!
Please let me know what you think, and please leave a YT comment if you wish.
Thanks,
John Marks
Follow Ups:
Thanks for a pleasant break from work.
. . . for employing the inégales ? I noticed he was using them, but I was wondering if topic came up in conversation. (Offhand, I can't recall a commercial recording where a player uses them in the Aria like this.)
BTW - Seems like a good recording, but, as I've mentioned on other occasions, I just don't completely trust what I hear on YouTube. You don't have a FLAC file available do you? :-)
p.s.: on the previous recordings with Hyperion Knight, I was getting distortion artifacts (which I think HiFiTommy was referring to in a previous post) for some reason. This Bach recording was free of them.
Hi-
Thanks for the careful listening! Steve and I discussed cabbages and kings, but not actually his interpretation. Steve studied with Nadia Reisenberg, Artur Balsam, and Murray Perahia, and has performed in St. Petersburg, Belfast, London and Paris, and throughout the US, and used to be on the music staff of the Vatican. Which I find screamingly funny, in view of his current gig at FBCIA, which was founded in 1638 by Roger Williams. So, long resume short, he is on entirely another level than am I. He has a harpsichord in his office and has forgotten more about Baroque than I have ever known, so I just sit back and enjoy the playing.
About the sound: the Hype Knight videos used my Sony webcam's internal mics and internal Automatic Volume Control. Which was pre-crunching the sound before storage on the webcam and then more crunching came when going up to YT. So, I bought a new Canon videocam with external mic input, and Jerry Bruck lent me a Schoeps COMBI mic which had a -15 dB pad switch, so we could keep the level away from AVC crunching. Big difference, I think. I am still trying to find a way to synch up hi-res audio from Jerry's mics to non-time-code video, but I think that the synch stays stable only for under a minute before you begin getting drift, but I will keep working on it.
ATB,
JM
Enjoyable. Thanks John.
As another Aussie I am also more familiar with the sound of the Stuart piano.
So any comments of the sound quality compared to other pianos you are familiar with?
And thanks for sharing your experience with us - appreciated.
John
Sadly (or is it happily?) an incurable audio-video nutter with an indecent number of toys. Classical music forever!!!!
Sad to say, even the test 24/96 recordings we have made just do not do the live sound justice. Not at all.
I LOVE the sound. Totally LOVE it.
The thing that jumps out at me, and which jumped out at Hyperion Knight, is that without all that much effort at all, the piano just seems to take the on-ramp, so to speak, and get on the highway and deliver just bushel baskets of harmonics. The attack is fast and the sustain is in my experience unique. I have played (badly) a Falcone but have not touched or heard a Fazioli. The combination of fast attack, really present and well-defined harmonics, and lengthy sustain means that the sound is bright but never tinny, and bold--it has more than a bit of swagger to it. This is not a shrinking-violet piano.
However, the thing that jumped out at Steve Martorella is that the four pedals offer unparalleled control over the softer end of the dynamic scale, which is why he played the Goldbergs Aria. But, between the videocamera's AVC and the compression of the compression going up to YouTube, you'd hardly know that, from what I put up.
I was willing to take a trip to hear a piano I have heard of but only heard on recordings, the Schimmel, but, their relief from creditors reorganization I am told has failed and they are now in liquidation--tragic. I know that there are people who prefer the mellow, laid-back sound of the "Estonia" piano (Stalin-era clone of luxury German pianos, now under new management) but I don't think I would. A chum in NYC has a B-dorfer in her apartment going on 20 years, so I am familiar with that.
Now, if I did win the Lottery I'd still buy a good harpsichord and lessons, but, if any institution wanted a ultra-premium piano for a concert series, etc., I certainly recommend the Stuart without any hesitation.
I have taken due note of the other poster who agrees that the S&S is great for Baroque and Classical but feels the sound a bit light for Romantic and later repertoire. I can see where he is coming from. However, the piano I have experience of is the apartment grand, 2.2m or 7 feet 2.6 inches. I assume that the 9 foot 6 inch concert grand has even more oomph.
I can safely say that the Stuart & Sons piano is a vehicle that you won't see coming the other way while you are taking it out for a drive, so to speak.
How's that?
ATB,
JM
Interesting, as the piano has evolved from that instrument it has lost a lot of the intensive harmony associated with the harpsichord.
I must put myself out to hear the Stuart in the flesh rather than on record or broadcast.
John
Sadly (or is it happily?) an incurable audio-video nutter with an indecent number of toys. Classical music forever!!!!
So I guess that's a yes.
And Jerry once served as emergency piano technician to Sviatislav Richter, in Spoleto, Italy. Amazing what you can do with Vice Grips in a pinch, pun intended.
I know that there are some people and even some players who want the very mellow sound where the start and stop of the note don't call attention to themselves as much. Someone, I forgot who it was, proposed the idea of the ideal piano sound being "hammerless," but that is not what you get with the Stuart.
I must emphasize though that the sound of the Stuart is not bizarre; it is just bold. And I think that in the hands and feet of the right player, it balances very well because the fourth pedal gives you more control over dynamics, it just takes a little getting used to on the part of the player.
JM
The video was quite nice, the performance average, and listening
on my cheap pc Logitech speakers the sound seems good.
But I am not too sure what is all the fuss is all about?
If the ultimate goal is to promote the quality of the piano maybe
a video such as the Fiazoli one would be more appropriate.
The sound is quite a bit better than the last recording you posted, which I thought was somewhat distorted and bright.I wasn't too crazy about the pianist's conception. F#*@ with the time that much and the lines become disjointed IMO.
Was the remark about the piano at the end spontaneous or planned? Does Stuart & Sons invite pianists in to be filmed playing their pianos for advertising purposes?
Edits: 02/04/10 02/05/10
Dear Rick,
It's really very simple.
There is no "deal."
There is, however, a recording engineer in NYC named Jerry Bruck. I happen to be in awe of his mind-boggling accomplishments. You can research his accomplishments for yourself, but, the high points are:
Jerry was absolutely instrumental in personally persuading Gustav Mahler's widow Alma to rescind her decades-long ban on public performances of completions of Mahler's 10th symphony. And not too long a time after Jerry and his colleagues achieved that, Alma was dead. Had they not brought the issue to a head when they did, her ban would have been cast in stone for as long as the manuscripts were in copyright.
An even more heroic task: Over the course of 40 years, Jerry spent his own time and money Quixotically to research the issue and build a case that the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft's ordering of the inner movements of the Sixth Symphony was a tragic mistake. Gilbert Kaplan funded the printing of Jerry's monograph, which is now almost universally regarded as definitive (but Kaplan funded only that--Jerry paid his own expenses for 40 years), and even the IGMG has revised its own version of the Sixth.
If that weren't enough, Jerry has recorded hundreds of significant classical recordings in performance venues all over the world. For me he has recorded Rejoice! A String Quartet Christmas, Volume Two; Nathaniel Rosen's Bach Solo cello Suites (which was a Stereophile Recording of the Month years before I began writing for Stereophile, and which many critics and listeners still regard as a high-water mark in recorded Bach), and "Music for a Glass Bead Game."
I consider it an honor to call Jerry a friend, and visiting his studio is a peak experience for me.
When the Stuart Piano people told me they were coming to America to scout out the lay of the land, that Serendipitously coincided with one of my audio-journalist trips to NYC, so we met up. I introduced them to Jerry and suggested that if they found no better place to place a demo piano, Jerry had a nice room and a fat Rolodex, and I'd help spread the word.
NB I have no commercial relationship with Stuart & Sons or their trading entity or their investors, or with their ilk, ith, kin, or Popish minions.
And I think that if you had heard the piano or played it, you'd understand what the fuss is about.
Steve Martorella is an old friend of Arturo Delmoni's and of mine. He is Music Minister of The First Baptist Church in America, which was founded in 1638, which one might think would make it one of the oldest organ benches in America, except for the fact that they got an organ only in 1834, and a large chunk of the congregation left, precisely over that issue--if you need that explained, re-read "Paradise Lost."
Steve is a heart-on-sleeve kind of person. Every player who had played that piano has wanted to own it. In fact, when I dropped off the DVD to Steve today (TFBCIA is about a mile up the street from me), Steve asked me to tell Jerry that if he ever needed someone to demo the piano, he'd be happy to travel to NYC to do it.
BTW, so Steve could play the piano, he drove us both from Providence to New Haven; we both paid our fares on Metro North; I paid the cab for the two of us to Jerry's; Jerry made a 24/96 recording at no charge; I paid for a nice dinner for Steve and for me; Steve paid for the parking for his car in New Haven; I made a DVD for Steve for free.
NONE of these expense will be reimbursed by Stuart & Sons--at least as far as I know.
In future times, I hope to get other players in to try the piano and consent to be recorded and YouTubed, and how horrible a thing is that?
If we eventually get the room and the mics working to the point that we are high-fiving, we might even record an album, but at the moment that is a long way off.
In the meantime, if you know any keyboard players who might want to indulge in the equivalent of test-driving a Maserati with no sales pressure, get in touch with Jerry.
OK?
Also: as occasions allow, I hope to be able to add to my YouTube channel videos of Arturo Delmoni and Nathaniel Rosen playing solo Bach. Perhaps even some solo classical guitar. Harpsichord. Whatever.
Just. Because.
Any more questions?
JM
That's about how I'd describe my piano chops. I won't be troubling Bruck/Stuart & Son for an appointment.Ya know, John, you coulda just said no and no. What Mahler's widow had to do with my 2 questions is beyond me :-)
Maybe if I hear the S & S piano live I'll think it has a unique and pleasing sound palette, and unique sustain variations. Maybe not.
The lighting didn't seem so bad to me.
Edits: 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/04/10 02/05/10 02/05/10
The video and audio are first rate but I only watch on my computer. The performance is not very good but I doubt that this gentleman is a professional piano player.
Alan
At the first Baptist Church in America.
JM
As an Australian, the Stuart and Sons pianos are somewhat familiar to me. I suspect there are a few more recordings of performances on them readily available here than in the US and our national classical music FM network often broadcasts live performances. I've yet to hear one in the flesh.
Quickly sampling your video clips of Steve Martorella and Hyperion Knight basically confirmed my impressions to date. I like the sound of the Stuart and Sons instruments on music of the classical and baroque periods where it's tonality and clarity tend to remind me of the fortepiano. On romantic and more contemporary music I tend to prefer the sound of other modern pianofortes which seem a little richer and weightier to my ears.
Not a piano for all seasons but definitely a piano for a couple of seasons, at least in my view.
Nice performances.
David Aiken
nt
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