Orchestra’s piano attains perfection

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BY RICK ROGERS

Published: October 12, 2008

Peter Krauss calls the Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s 9-foot Hamburg Steinway the finest instrument he’s ever worked on. That’s high praise from a piano technician who has serviced hundreds of fine pianos during his career. But this concert grand has a remarkable pedigree.

Andre Watts. Photo provided

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With a substantial gift from patrons John and Mary Nichols, Philharmonic officials began a search for a new concert grand in 1994. And who better to select an instrument than Jean-Yves Thibaudet, an internationally acclaimed artist who had become one of the orchestra’s most popular guests.

Thibaudet played a number of Steinways in New York, none of which he found exceptional. After returning to Paris, he found an instrument capable of thundering octaves and transparent quiet passages. Moreover, its sound was consistent throughout its seven-octave range.

Once purchased, it was quickly shipped to Oklahoma.

"What we have here is a treasure; there’s no other way to describe it,” Krauss said of the concert grand. "You can hear the faintest pianissimo as clear as a bell, even in the nosebleed seats. Another thing pianists love is that it has a great singing sound. It’s truly a world-class piano.”

In the past 14 years, more than 30 concert pianists have appeared with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, a few on multiple occasions. Most have been unanimous in their praise of the Steinway. After his 1998 concert here, Jean-Philippe Collard was so impressed that he offered to buy it outright.

"It’s important to have the piano in excellent condition before the pianist ever touches it,” Krauss said. "The most stressful moment for a concert pianist is not the traveling or playing the concerto; it’s the moment they walk on stage and meet the piano for the first time. It can affect their perception and confidence.”

Krauss will tune the piano before each rehearsal and then again before Saturday’s concert. He’ll also check the instrument’s voicing (making sure the piano sounds as evenly as possible from note to note), and its regulation (a system of levers that controls how the hammers hit the strings).

"Voicing mostly has to do with treating the hammers and checking the density of the felt,” Krauss said. "If one note of the scale sticks out, you have to bring that note in line with the rest of the notes around it. Regulation is the art of restoring those leverage relationships so the piano operates as efficiently as possible. Most pianists like hyper-fast repetition, a huge color spectrum and a piano whose long tones don’t die away quickly.”

Since Krauss has worked with this week’s guest artist (Andre Watts) before, he’s familiar with the pianist’s style of playing and will be able to prepare the piano to suit his needs.

"Watts likes the upper part of piano to be tuned so that the octaves are clean and bell-like,” Krauss said. "The last time he was here, he told me that he was not getting quite the sound he wanted. He knows what he needs the piano to do for the piece he’s playing.

"In this business, we try for perfection but in the real world it’s almost never possible to achieve. That standard for me is our Hamburg Steinway. When it’s properly voiced and regulated, the effect is almost magical.”

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