b Riding East: Bach WTC in F/f

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Bach WTC in F/f

Finally caved in and bought a Steinway.  It almost seems like a betrayal of Mr. Baller. He had a Bösendorfer 225 and Yamaha C7. He believed the Steinways had problems.  He would always ship his Bösendorfer around whenever he performed.

My first piano (other than the Knabe I grew up on in my mother's house) was a Yamaha S400 back in '92. I loved it -- still do. My second piano was a Bösendorfer 225. I spent some time at the factory outside Vienna testing several out, and finally picked the one I liked and shipped it to California in '00. When I built the second house in Wyoming, I shipped the Yamaha out there, where it remains. Eventually I picked up another second piano for the CA house, a used Baldwin, which I love -- I've always liked the older Baldwin pianos. Very sturdy. Well, when Smule opened up our new office in San Francisco, I decided to put the Baldwin up there, allowing friends from the company to play in our office. It's been great. And last week, I replaced the Yamaha/Baldwin as the second piano with a Steinway B. I haven't played the Bösendorfer since. It almost seems like we broke up.

I decided to try and record a couple new pieces on the Steinway. I think I would be better off recording on a broken down piano so that my technique and mistakes could be blamed on the instrument (including that missed F vs E-flat on the recap of the f-minor Prelude below).

Prelude in F major, Vol. 1, WTC
Fugue in F major, Vol. 1, WTC
Prelude in f minor, Vol. 1, WTC

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