Jeffery Kahane plays the Fazioli F278
Working with the New World Symphony affords me some rare opportunities. This past January I was fortunate enough to work for the pianist Jeffery Kahane. What made this concert weekend rare though was that a Fazioli F278 also arrived courtesy of EuroPianos Naples.
Concert weekends like this go by fast. There’s usually only two rehearsals with the artist and two performances. That means I get two morning sessions, and two "day-of" sessions just before the concert starts. In most concert halls the "day-of" sessions are not the time to take the piano apart (unless there's a problem). That means that t he two morning sessions are the only time I have to really dig in and familiarize myself with the instrument, it's character, and it's wants and needs.
The first morning session is all about tuning. This is the tuning you're going to count on all weekend. I spent two hours jamming a super solid tuning into the F278 that first morning and was rewarded for it. It only needed minor touch-ups for the remaining sessions.
The second and last morning session is all technical. I usually asses the tuning and then spend as much time as possible analyzing and dealing with any technical issues. In this case the Fazioli F278 only needed some lubrication on the key pins to give it that extra zip. I also voiced a group of hammers for evenness in the 5th/6th octaves. Fazioli uses Renner hammers which are hard pressed hammers so you have to tread lightly.
It was a successful weekend for everyone. Mr. Kahane got a rave review for the Mozart concerto and I got see up close another example of the one of the finest pianos made on this planet.
