Whats Better Than a Steinway?
A Hamburg Steinway, that’s what. I have long noticed the excellence of the instrument in Herbst Theater (rented from Pro Piano by San Francisco Performances), but there were four (4) testimonals last week from folks with better ears than mine. At Thomas Quasthoff’s memorable recital on Thursday, the audience included Garrick Ohlsson, soloist for the next-door San Francisco Symphony concerts. Ignoring mother’s admonition about eavesdropping, I heard Ohlsson say: “Why can’t they have a piano like this in Davies Hall?!” Both Quasthoff and his brilliant accompanist, Justus Zeyen (all 6’5″ of him) expressed delight with the instrument, and then on Saturday, the same Hamburg Steinway not only withstood Lang Lang’s hurricane-like Liszt, but sounded as fine at the end of the concert as at the beginning. Zeyen’s aside: “You wouldn’t believe the bad pianos we’ve gotten in America.” As anybody who travels around, I do believe. The instrument is so popular with visiting artists that there is a lon
