Piano party on 12th September (more pictures)

Courtesy of Min Liang.

Ummm....me.

Sauter Omega 220

Inside the piano

From the tail-end

Wzkit at the keyboard

Sauter

On the plate

The buffet table

Piano party on 12th September

I hosted my second piano party last Saturday, 12th September 2009. As with the previous piano party that I hosted in February 2009, a lunch buffet was catered. The food was Peranakan, and from the same caterer as the last time.

There was a good mix of repeat and new guests. Earliest to arrive were Bihua and her husband (after her antenatal classes). Followed closely by Wzkit. It took Wzkit barely 2 minutes to get seated at the piano after stepping in the door. Here they are:

The first three guests

At the previous piano party Lynnette Seah (co-leader of the SSO) suggested that I invite different instrumentalists to play with piano accompaniment. Good idea, but none of the pianists I knew had any experience as an accompanist. As luck would have it, one of the new guests, Josh, likes to accompany violinists and always has a few pieces ready. So when he suggested accompanying Lynnette on some Kreisler I jumped at the chance, reminded Lynnette to bring her violin, and told her about Josh’s suggestion.

And so she turned up with her fiddle and some of her own scores! And not just Kriesler. After everybody had eaten we settled down for musical dessert.

Settling down for musical dessert

Josh and Lynnette started out with the following Kreisler pieces: “Liebesleid” (“Love’s Sorrow”), “Praeludium and Allegro,” “Schön Rosmarin,” and “Rondino on a Theme by Beethoven.” Wzkit was the page turner.

Josh & Lynnette, and Wzkit turning pages

Some of the engrossed guests

A couple of the guests had never heard the violin played live, and by a good violinist. While Lynnette was playing one said that the next musical instrument he wants to learn to play is the violin. What a daunting task that would be!

After the Kreisler pieces Lynnette pulled out more sheet music, Vittorio Monti’s “Czardas”. But none of us had the sight-reading skills nor chops to accompany her at full tempo. So we ended up with music for two pianists and violin. The two pianists were Jon (playing left hand) and Seng Kiat (playing right hand).

Intrepid performers gearing up for "Czardas"

Josh thought that it was a great idea to have two pianists share the piano load! Of course, this guaranteed that the fast bits would definitely not be at full tempo. Rachmaninov’s “Vocalise” (violin transcription) was also attempted, with Seng Kiat on left hand and Jon on right hand. There was one more, but I forgot what it was.

Czardas

We were very grateful for Lynnette being so sporting.

There was a bit of a lull while the caterer came to collect the buffet equipment. Needless to say the leftovers were retained.

Three happy guests

The picture above shows the Sauter dealer Alvin, Roxane (Steinway B), and Barnaby (Sauter Ambiente). Roxane and Barnaby are of course their PW nicks.

Roxane takes her ABRSM Diploma performance exam tomorrow 16th September, and played for us chunks from her programme. Fj_s tickled the keys for a short while, citing unpreparedness after an 11-year lay off as the reason. He still managed to tease with the opening page of Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy”. He’s promised to play more the next time.

We weren’t quite done yet with the piano accompanist thing, because Jon brought along his bassoon and played for us, accompanied by Seng Kiat. They were playing “Vocalise” from Lynnette’s score.

Jon on the bassoon, Seng Kiat on the piano

All-in-all it was a great afternoon of music, food and conversation.

Gala concert — SSO and Li Yundi

Last night, Friday 24th July.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Lan Shui, cond.

Programme

Karl Goldmark
Rustic Wedding Symphony, Op. 26

Intermission

Peter Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23

I arrived 25 minutes early at 1905h, which was just as well because security was tight, on account of the recent bombings in Jakarta and the fact that there were a number of VIPs in the audience. It took me about 7 minutes to clear the security screening (bag search, metal detectors). After a quick visit to the washroom, I seated myself at 1915h.

I booked late for this concert so only managed to get a seat in the gallery behind the stage. Better than nothing, and worth being there at least once for a different point of view. I was seated at about the 1 o’clock position (from the conductor’s rostrum). Being the naughty person that I am I snapped a picture with my phone’s camera before the concert began:

The security screening and the full house caused the start of the concert to be delayed by 15 minutes to 1945h.

Sound-wise the gallery is definitely not the best place to be. The balance was odd, being a complete reversal of what one hears when seated in front of the stage. The first and second violins sounded distant and thin. The chance to be close to the players and to have a player’s view of the conductor sort of made up for the poor sound.

There was a minor scare just before the start. A patron entering the gallery tripped on the stairs and stumbled THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP down towards the low wall separating the gallery from the stage. She managed to stop her descent in time, to prevent herself from ending up amongst the double basses.

I’d never heard Goldmark before so didn’t know what to expect. I must say I rather enjoyed it. The SSO players were in pretty good form. Perhaps its because they’ve been working on it for the album that is being recorded right now. The only sour point was between the first and second movements. Maestro Lan Shui had his baton up and the players ready to go, but he had to pause when someone’s phone alarm rang at 2000h, from the gallery of all places. DING-tika-DING-tika-DING-tika. (I know it was an alarm because the concert hall is completely shielded from the mobile networks.) At first I thought that the percussionist, who was poised with triangle in one hand and beater in the other, had decided to start the second movement early!

After the 20-minute intermission we had the main event, Li Yundi playing the Tchaikovsky No. 1. The orchestra seemed to be under-rehearsed. One of the French horns wobbled on the 3 dotted minims in bars 78 to 80. On the last one in bar 80, the French horn went completely flat and almost broke. On the whole the ensemble playing could have been tighter.

As for Li Yundi’s playing, I can’t make any meaningful comment here. The piano sound was awful, no doubt due to my being seated behind the orchestra and therefore on the wrong side of the open lid. The poor balance caused the loss of a lot of the tension derived from the changes in tempi and dynamics. Li Yundi seemed a little disconnected from the performance at times, and missed a bunch of notes. I don’t expect note-perfection from pianists in live concerts. But that coupled with all the other negatives made the entire experience somewhat underwhelming.

Postscript 15th September 2009: My poor impression of Yundi Li’s Tchaikovsky was spot on, it seems. I didn’t read the reviews in the press the next day, but I was recently told that all the reviews panned the performance. I was also told that he did not prepare for the concert, and over-pedaled to cover up the messier bits. I hope the young man doesn’t think that Singapore is some cultural backwater where audiences wouldn’t know a bad performance even if it kicked them in the guts. He tours Germany and the UK in October next year with the SSO. I presume that he will be much better prepared for that.

Better control over relative humidity at home

The volume of air in my living/dining area is large, and I have pretty good weather sealing around the large patio doors. This means that the piano is safe from the high RH outside the flat. Even opening and closing the front door to enter or leave the flat does not change the RH much at all.

I do have a RH control problem all the same — the RH swings a lot — from around 38% when the aircon is turned on for an hour at 26°C (outside temperature about 30-31°C ), to about 65% when the aircon has been left off for a few hours. As the RH goes through its gyrations the tuning on the piano also drifts. Not so much now that I’ve learned to set the pins and strings better when I tune the piano, but still enough that it bothers me. Now I think I have found a way to keep the RH around 60% and limit the swings to about ±5% around that mark — the Sharp KC-850E humidifying air purifier.

I was actually looking for an air purifier with HEPA filter to reduce the cat dander at home. I have a mild allergy to cat dander, and have a chronic low level allergic rhinits. A friend who visits often has an even stronger reaction. After about 5 minutes in the flat he starts to tear, sneeze, and get a runny nose and blocked sinuses.

The humidifying air purifiers from Sharp attempt to keep the RH at around 60%. Of course, they are intended for use in low RH climates and in air-conditioned spaces. They can also be used without the humidifying function by leaving the water tank empty.

With the KC-850E running (its very quiet!) I get cleaner air, and RH swings between about 55% and 65%. I also got the smaller KC-840E for my home office because it adjoins the living/dining area, and the KC-850E alone can’t handle that big of a space. They aren’t that cheap but these things last for years. And they are on sale now (in Singapore) until 31st July 2009.

Temperament changed to EBVT III

A week ago I tuned my piano to Bill Bremmer’s EBVT III, but with slight offset corrections (as discussed HERE). I actually used the original EBVT for about five months last year, but switched to the Lehman temperament for the past seven months out of curiosity — I wanted to hear what music sounded like in what is purported to be the temperament used by Bach.

The piano sounded darker after the change to EBVT III. This was expected because EBVT III is a milder form of Well temperament than the Lehman, even milder than the original EBVT. But now that my ears have adjusted to the tonal changes, I have decided that I will stick with the EBVT III for a while.

I had a couple of issues with the Lehman temperament. Some keys were rather too ’spicy’ for my taste. Some dissonant intervals were bordering on the offensive. And in general the piano sounded tended to sound out-of-tune fairly quickly as the tuning drifted due to changes in temperature and humidity.

The EBVT III temperament, on the other hand reduces ‘colour’ differences between keys, but yet has enough key colour to avoid the every-key-sounds-the-same characteristic of Equal temperament. The piano also sounds more in tune with itself, and tuning drift is less objectionable than with the Lehman temperament.

16th Singapore International Piano Festival — Day 4/4

Sunday, 28th June 2009

Yevgeny Sudbin

Scarlatti

• Sonata in F minor, K. 466
• Sonata in G major, K. 455

Haydn

• Sonata in E minor, XVI:34

Chopin

• Mazurka No. 3 in F minor, Op. 7
• Mazurka No. 4 in B-flat minor, Op. 24
• Mazurka No. 2 in D major, Op. 33
• Mazurka No. 4 in B minor , Op. 33

Medtner

• Fairy Tale No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 26 Allegretto frescamente
• Fairy Tale No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 20 Allegro con espressione

Prokofiev

• Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major

Technically very sound. Incredibly clean articulation and very accurate.

Musically, not completely satisfying. The Scarlatti was awesome. Haydn has never turned me on, so I’ll pass on that.

As for the Chopin Mazurkas, I wonder if there is a modern Chopin revisionism going on. Every visiting pianist I’ve heard in the last year plays Chopin much straighter than say, Horowitz, Rubinstein, or Arrau. Much less rubato than the old masters, and less dynamic range.

I am unfamiliar with Medtner’s music.

The Prokofiev was pretty good, if lacking a little in tension. Not my cup of tea (at least not yet).

16th Singapore International Piano Festival — Day 3/4

Saturday, 27th June 2009

Pascal Rogé

Various Composers (played consecutively without a break)

• Fauré — Nocturne No. 1, Op. 33 No. 1
• Chopin — Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1
• Poulenc — Nocturne No. 1 in C major
• Debussy — Prélude: Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses
• Chopin — Prélude in D-flat major, Op. 28 No. 15 “Raindrop”
• Debussy — Préludes: La fille aux cheveux de lin, Le vent dans la plaine, Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest
• Chopin — Prélude in B minor, Op. 28 No. 6
• Debussy — Préludes: La terrasse des audiences au clair de lune, Les collines d’Anacapri
• Debussy — Étude No. 6, pour les 8 doigts
• Chopin — Étude in A-flat major, Op. 25 No. 1 “Aeolian Harp”
• Debussy — Étude No. 11, pour les arpèges composées
• Chopin — Étude in C minor, Op. 10 No. 12 “Revolutionary”

Pascal & Ami Rogé

Schubert

• Fantaisie in F minor, D.940

Ravel

• Rapsodie espagnole

Tonight’s programming in the first half was very interesting, being a compendium of characteristic pieces by French composers (if you allow Chopin’s time in France being enough to make him sufficiently French).

The second half of the evening comprised two-handed works played by Rogé and his wife Ami. It was fun!

16th Singapore International Piano Festival — Day 2/4

Friday, 26th June 2009

Nikolai Demidenko

Chopin

• 24 Preludes, Op. 28

Schumann

• Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26
• Carnaval, Op. 9

I had booked the tickets for the piano festival only just a week and half ago. By then all the good seats for the Demidenko concert were gone. But I managed to score a pair from the organiser. There was even an upgrade to the best seats in the house when the Prime Minister and his wife didn’t show up. The PM’s wife had a cold, so to set a good example (during the current H1N1-A ‘flu pandemic) they thought it best to cancel.

At first I had mixed feelings about Demidenko’s take on the Chopin Preludes. But during the intermission I thought about it some more and decided that I liked all of what I heard.

The rubato was more restrained than one typically expects in a more dramatic (over the top?) reading. The dynamics in some of the preludes were different from the score (well, at least the two editions of the Preludes that I have). In about three or four transitions he bridged the adjacent preludes by holding the last note of the preceding prelude in order to allow a seamless segue into the next prelude. This is the first time I have ever heard all of Op. 28 played as a complete set in recital. Demidenko made the 24 preludes sound like an organic whole. Yes, I still prefer Arrau, but Demidenko’s Preludes is a good alternative view. In fact, for some individual preludes I prefer Demidenko to Arrau.

Then after the intermission, came the Schumann. I have never heard either Faschingsschwank aus Wien nor Carnaval played live before. Demidenko was stunning. What more can I say. Music like this and last night’s Pictures amply demonstrate that the concert grand piano has no equal as a musical instrument.

There were three encores.

16th Singapore International Piano Festival — Day 1/4

At the Victoria Concert Hall.

Thursday, 25th June 2009

Vladimir Feltsman

Bach

• Partita No. 1 in B-flat major, BWV. 825

Chopin

• Polonaise No. 1 in C-sharp minor, Op. 26
• Polonaise No. 2 in E-flat minor, Op. 26
• Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major, Op. 47

Mussorgsky

• Pictures at an Exhibition

Didn’t care for his Bach Partita nor the two Chopin Polonaises. He got going with the Chopin Ballade, and fired up more with Pictures. I like his tone — rounded and robust. Reminds me of Claudio Arrau, but with less articulation.

Feltsman played two encores. I didn’t recognize the first one (which isn’t surprising given my rather meagre knowledge of repertoire). The second encore was Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2.

What a cat can do on a piano

See all of Nora’s videos HERE.

What two people can do on a piano

Shame on you if you had naughty thoughts!

Sometimes a heater bar is just not enough

A local piano tech well-known to me recently went to fix a problem that a Yamaha upright owner had with sticking keys. This piano is not a grey import — it was bought from Yamaha Singapore. The cause of the problem was obvious — the keys had swelled because of the heavy rain we’ve been having everyday for the past couple of weeks. (For those who don’t live in Singapore, during a torrential tropical downpour the raindrops are the size of cows, not cats nor dogs. And it comes down in bathtubs, not buckets.) The piano was situated in the non-airconditioned living room.

The usual advice that all piano dealers and techs give is that for uprights in Singapore, an always-on heater bar in the case is all that is needed to keep the action in good shape. Indeed, even I have said that before, but now I will correct myself. We’ve all forgotten that the front length of the keys are outside the case, and therefore not protected from high RH.

Fortunately, the swelling is reversible. You just have to lower the RH around the piano to between 50% to 60%, until the keys have dried out sufficiently to un-stick. Obviously the best long-term solution is to aircondition or dehumidfy the room to keep the RH between 40% to 60%, but that’s not practical for some owners.

Britain’s got talent — Susan Boyle

HERE. (Sorry, Youtube has disabled embedding of this video.)

• Prime example of why one should not judge a book by its cover.
• Everyone has talents, big and small.
• Never give up on yourself.

Her innocence and talent and their effect on the judges and audience make your heart leap for joy.

Roland RD-700GX YouTube playlist

Roland RD-700GX Stage Piano

See the playlist here. Check out the breathtaking playing by David Benoit and Brian Culbertson!

Pianoteq 3.0 audio demos

Pianoteq (like the Roland V-Piano) uses physical modeling to generate the sounds of an acoustic grand. Version 3 was released in February this year. Here are some audio demos. I would be lying if I said that is sounds like a real acoustic piano, but its really not bad at all.

The Roland V-Piano

I’m making the rounds of the various digital piano dealers in Singapore to help my brother in the U.S. select one for his home. While doing my homework I visited the Roland website and saw this: the V-Piano.

Roland V-Piano

The demos on the V-Piano microsite sound good! It’s not cheap though — the street price in the US is around USD6,000. And there is a long waiting list. It’s so new that the keyboard specialist at the local Roland agent didn’t know about it!

Kosuke Atari – An interesting voice

Kosuke Atari is a Japanese folk/pop crossover singer with an interesting vocal technique and tone.

From jpopasia.com:

Hailing from Amami-Oshima in southern Japan, Atari Kousuke is a young singer currently signed to Epic Records Japan. He is a self-trained musician, and performs in the difficult ’shima-uta’ (or ‘island-song’) style of his hometown.

While his style of music is close to mainstream pop, his vocals have an undoubtedly traditional Japanese flavour, and his inspiration still comes from his traditional roots.

When Kousuke was in high school, he became a fan of Hajime Chitose. Inspired, he began to teach himself how to sing in shima-uta style.

In 2000, he won the Amami Folk Song Grand Prix’s ‘New Member Award’. He also won the Japanese Folk Song Association Award. He continued to participate in numerous Ryukyu based folk festivals and tournaments.

What Yo-Yo Ma and friends really played at the Presidential Inauguration

Piano party report & pictures

Twenty-two people turned up, and we had a really fun afternoon. The piano playing was in a way secondary to the whole event. It was more an excuse to get some people together to have a good natter, some good food, and also some music.

There was a rather eclectic mix of non-musicians (some close friends of mine), classical pianists, a jazz pianist, and a violinist. The range of ‘real’ occupations was interesting. They included piano tech, piano dealer, economist, computer scientist (ex-academic), mechanical engineer (academic), music teacher, professional musician, IT project manager, HR officer, IT systems analyst, marketing executive, student (forensic science), school teacher, finance director, IT sales rep, and lawyer.

The professional musician was the violinist, Lynette Seah, co-leader of the Singapore Symphony. She was kind enough to attend, and was thoroughly delightful. She even obliged with a couple of short excerpts from Bach and Bruch. Sadly the cheap violin and shrill steel strings were not up to scratch. Lynette said that she would have gladly brought her own violin if I had told her that she had to play for her lunch!

The caterer arrived at 11.05h to set up the buffet table and start warming up the food. Shortly after that Alvin arrived to (a) fix a clicking damper pedal; (b) touch up my tuning; and (c) change the una corda from 2.5 strings to 2 strings.

Lunch commenced at 12.45h, and people kept eating from the buffet throughout the whole afternoon. For the record, here’s the full menu:

• Crabmeat/Chicken Ball Soup
• Nonya Cold Dish Platter
• Nonya Mee Siam
• Nonya Fried Rice
• Ayam Buah Keluak
• Itek Sio
• Spicy Grilled Prawns
• Ikan Chuan
• Nonya Chap Chye with Black Mushrooms
• Assorted Nonya Kueh
• Lime Juice

Of course, sambal belacan was provided as well. The food was pretty good on the whole. The only let-down was the soup — it was deliciously flavourful, but a little on the salty side. Lynette is no slouch in the kitchen with peranakan food, and she made approving noises while eating. So, for those who want to know, the caterer was Chilli Api Catering, a subsidiary of the Chilli Padi peranakan restaurant in Joo Chiat.

Myself and several guests played during the afternoon. Some were initially too shy to play, but eventually it became clear that everyone was there to enjoy themselves and not be music critics or snobs. It didn’t matter whether you played well or not. Everybody was welcome to have a go.

Now for a few pictures.

Ready for visitors

The caterer had just left, and Alvin had finished tidying up my tuning.

Where are they?

Right after I snapped this shot the first visitor arrived. It was my neighbour Jonathan with wife and young daughter.

Jonathan

Jon has fantastic facility on the keyboard. I can sometimes hear him pounding out Rachmaninov and Chopin (the ‘Military’ polonaise mainly) on his Yamaha upright. He says he plays loud to relieve stress. Jon did a lot to help me relax the guests. He got me, Wzkit and Roxane to play duets of solo pieces with him. Interesting. It turned out that Jon and Wzkit have known each other for many years, since the time when they were members of the Piano Ensemble at NUS.

One end of the buffet table

The other end of the buffet table

Lynette and Clarence

Lynnette always looks glamourous, even when dressed casually! Clarence is a close friend who lives nearby with his family. His whole gang (plus extras) came over to enjoy the company, music, and food (not necessarily in that order!).

Some guests

Some of the people in this shot are PW members, but I won’t associate person with PW nick, other than to say that in this shot you see snoopycar, cmk, and Roxane.

Darned paparazzi!

I led off the playing (not that I had any choice). Started with two Chopin preludes — #7 in A major and #20 in C minor — followed by the first movement of Beethoven’s sonata #12 in A-flat major, op. 26. Here I had just screwed up (one of several times) and I blamed it on the camera flash popping during Variation II of the Beethoven.

Lynette playing for her lunch

She played short excerpts from Bach’s ‘Loure’ (Partita #3), and the second movement from Bruch’s 1st violin concerto.

Listening to Lynette play

More people listening to Lynette play

And Jonathan was humming loudly!

Which one of us is Warus?

One of these ladies is the PW member ‘Warus‘. All the PW members present had thought that Warus was a guy. We were very wrong!

Wzkit at the piano

He’s great company, and a really good pianist. Here he’s playing Tchaikovsky’s ‘Octobre‘.

Wzkit playing some more!

Here he was playing Bortkiewicz’s ‘Consolation‘. The microphones in the foreground show that I had actually set up to record the piano. But mild stage fright caused me to forget to start recording before my stint at the keyboard. After that we collectively decided to just forget it this time around.

The leftovers!

So how do we finish all this food? The prawns weren’t touched at all the whole afternoon, probably because shelling them would have been a nuisance. So a few of us sat around and nibbled at the food until about 20.00h. Then I packed some to take to my parents for their dinner. We ate some more at around 21.30h (when the prawns were completely polished off!) and then some more late in the evening. We never did finish up all the food.

How long did people stay? Well, Roxane left around 18.30h while Wzkit left at 20.15h when I stepped out to take some leftovers to my parents for their dinner.

By all accounts the afternoon went well. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I certainly did!

Will there be more? Maybe. I suggested to Lynette that if there is another piano afternoon that she bring her violin and an accompanist with her and play a violin sonata. Well, why just stop at violin, she said. How about having different instrumentalists visit on each occasion? Now that’s a thought, isn’t it.

One more thing I forgot: Norman, the jazz pianist, also played for us. To be honest, I am personally jealous of jazz pianists and their great musicianship skills.

European piano makers boycott 2009 Frankfurt Musikmesse?

At least that’s what I heard on the grapevine. Apparently the European manufacturers are unhappy at being relegated to a poor location while still being charged more than last year’s already high exhibitor fees. So this year it will be Japanese, Korean, and Chinese pianos galore at the messe, especially Chinese.

Piano party

Now that the Omega has settled in well, I’ve decided to host a piano party at my home on Saturday 21st February.

I had originally considered making it an open house event for PW members in Singapore, but the lack of space in my flat ruled that out. So, its an invitation-only event. The invitees include some PW members whom I’ve corresponded with, and some of Wzkit’s and Alvin’s piano friends. One of my friends is trying to rope in one of the piano professors from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, but we are secretly hoping that he can’t make it — would be too intimidating for us amateur pianists! For variety I’ve also invited a friend who is a violinist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. There are about 20 people confirmed attending. Should be a fun day.

For lunch I’m having a buffet catered. The menu is all peranakan cuisine, also known as nonya food. For those who aren’t familiar with peranakan cuisine you can find out a little more about it HERE and HERE.

If you are adventurous in the kitchen (and can get the necessary ingredients where you live), then the cookbook by Shermay Lee is a good starting point. (There is a second volume.) These cookbooks are actually updated versions of the cookbook written by her grandmother, Mrs Lee Chin Koon. (Mrs Lee is the mother of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding Prime Minister.) Unfortunately these two volumes don’t cover peranakan desserts, something that the cuisine is famous for too. The cookbooks by Mrs Leong Yee Soo have been around for a long time as well, but they are not recommended. Many of the recipes just don’t work — they’ve obviously never been tested.

Cringeworthy crap

So I’ve changed the template of the blog to one that is vastly better than the one that I was using before. Much better in visual terms.

Can’t say the same for some of the stuff I’ve written since I started this blog last May. I went back to read many of my old posts and I could only slap my hand to my forehead. Oh well, we learn all the time I guess.

The Omega is now 6 months old!

The six-month mark was reached on 8th February.

Yesterday Alvin came by to do the first service. The action was regulated, and minor niggling problems fixed, such as a little squeak when the soft pedal is released. There is still a tiny click when the damper pedal is released. We know what the cause is, but will be consulting the factory on how best to fix it. Not a big deal.

Alvin also did some tuning, but not to change the temperament (which is still the Lehman). The tuning was to even out the voicing of the top two octaves of the keyboard, and to mute the slight tendency of a group of notes to twang when played forte, namely E3 to A#3. This latter problem is quite mysterious. The fact that the notes are grouped suggests  an issue with the room’s acoustics (specifically reflection off the ceiling, side wall or back wall). Anyway, the factory is being consulted about this too. The twanging can be completely removed by careful tuning, but it will come back again to varying degrees as the tuning drifts.

Overall the tone of the centre 3/4 of the keyboard has become more refined, due of course to the fact that that’s where most of the playing happens. The last two octaves in the treble will take more time to develop, but already the lowest notes of those notes are starting to open up more.

All the anxiety that I felt about buying this piano sight unseen has gone. The Omega is turning out to be a marvelous instrument.

The Magnetic Balanced Action

The Magnetic Balanced Action was invented by Evert Snel and Hans Velo about nine years ago. A couple of manufacturers offer it as a factory-fitted option — Fazioli comes to mind. It can also be retrofitted to existing grand pianos. What’s even more interesting is that it is available in Singapore from Emmanuel & Sons, at a cost of between SGD5,000 and SGD7,000. Needless to say, installing the MBA into a piano still under warranty will instantly void the warranty. (Heck, even tuning your own piano voids the warranty!)

How good are piano techs in Singapore?

The right answer is, of course, ‘don’t know’.

In the U.S. one can attend piano tech courses at tertiary level. Here’s one that ‘Kenny’ from PW is attending right now. And these are the course descriptions. I wonder how many techs in Singapore can get a passing grade on the exams.

In the U.S. piano techs can become members of the Piano Technicians Guild after passing the PTG exam. Again, I wonder how many techs in Singapore can pass the PTG exams.

For those who don’t know, a guild is an association of craftsmen whose members are certified to be competent in their craft. Of course, not all PTG members are equally good, but at least if you engage a PTG member you have a good chance of getting a competent tech to work on your piano. Of course, there really isn’t a huge demand for techs in Singapore who can rebuild a piano, but you know what I’m getting at.

These scale exercises work!

Jason Sifford (‘Kreisler’ in PW) posted a draft of a document describing how to practice scales. Download it HERE. Read the original thread HERE.

As a quick test I tried one exercise to see if it would work. The ‘Dotted Rhythms’ exercise helps you to play scales more evenly, accurately, rapidly and with better articulation. I first played all the major scales using the dotted rhythms pattern, left-hand and right-hand separately, and then played them again the usual way, with a straight rhythm. The improvement was immediate. I then played the same scales hands together, and experienced similar improvement. Quite remarkable and mysterious.

Edit: And it works too with fast passage work! I just tried it with a couple of Hanon exercises.