On Friday, March 6, the prestigious Carmel Music Society will take delivery at Sunset Center in Carmel of a big black box arriving by airfreight from Paris. No one here has seen the box yet, and no one knows for sure what is inside. Moreover, the Carmel Music Society has purchased this box, sight unseen, for $100,000.
Does this sound like a crazy deal? Well, it is not. The black box is a brand new Steinway concert grand manufactured in Hamburg, Germany. If the American Steinway is the prince of pianos, its German cousin is certainly the king. During a period when the quality of manufacture and service from New York Steinway & Sons has eroded and become tarnished, the factory in Hamburg has developed and maintained a stellar image for quality and consistency.
To minimize the risk of purchasing a piano sight unseen, the Carmel Music Society's President, Keith Anderson appointed one of its board members, Sally Magee, a local pianist, to head up the search committee. Ms. Magee engaged the distinguished young French pianist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, to select the instrument in the Paris showroom of Steinway & Sons.
The Carmel Music Society's previously owned Steinway concert grand was purchased in 1948. During its fifty-year history with the Society, such illustrious artists as Horowitz, Rubinstein, Ashkenazy, Stravinsky, Poulenc, De Larrocha, Gieseking, and many others have used it in concerts. The Carmel Music Society has always made this instrument available to other organizations, and thus it has also seen considerable usage by such organizations as the Carmel Bach Festival, the Monterey County Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of the Monterey Peninsula and the Keyboard Artist Series.
In recent years the older piano, although still a glorious instrument, was suffering from age, and its voice had weakened. The Society clearly had three choices: restore the older instrument, purchase a New York Steinway, or purchase a Hamburg Steinway. To restore an older instrument is always a risk, for after the open-heart surgery of complete restoration, many engineering specifications are likely to change and the finished instrument may be a disappointment. Clearly it is better to purchase an instrument that is concert ready.
Purchasing a New York Steinway is risky because of the quality inconsistency, for it is an inescapable fact that the New York Steinway concert grands owned by Monterey Peninsula College and Hartnell are mediocre instruments, while the one owned by California State University Monterey Bay is magnificent.
The Carmel Music Society made a courageous decision to purchase the Hamburg Steinway from a European source. And, having a distinguished pianist make the selection was a prudent way to minimize the risk. When we consider that the previous Steinway gave valiant service for fifty years, then we can assume that this new instrument will be an outstanding asset, not only for the Carmel Music Society, but also for all the other organizations that will benefit from the Society's largesse.
This will be a very significant month for the Carmel Music Society. The new Steinway arrives on March 6, Andras Schiff performs the first recital on the instrument on March 13, and the eight finalists of the Society's piano competition will give the piano a rigorous workout on March 28.
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