Features
listed Clinkscale II : p.292 under serial no.
Restorer: David Winston, Cranbrook, Kent, England
Nameboard: rosewood bordered by parralell lines of this brass stringing which also frames the white name label incribed “Medalsseg dÓr, 1827, 1834 at 1839” Ignace Pleyel & Compie / Facteurs du Roi / Paris
Number: 9486A incised R upper surface of frame adjacent to CC-g4, 80 notes
Compass: 6-1/2 octaves C-G
Keyboard : single unreversed manual keyboard materials : ivory naturals, ebony sharps
Pitch: A 415 Hz
Tuning: equal tempered
Action: modified English grand action
Hammer covering: felt
Bridge: divided at E-F
Strings:
- bass bridge: CC-EE (5 notes) monochord copper overspun on iron
- bass bridge: FF-E (12 notes) bichord copper overspun on iron
- treble bridge: F-G (63 notes) trichord iron F – g4
Agraffes: 67 notes CC – f#3
Capotasto bar: 13 notes g3 – g4
Removeable “secondary soundboard”
Dampers: overdampers: 63 notes CC – d3
Frame: timber with metal string plate and four iron reinforcing braces with downward extensions separating soundboard from wrestplank, braces 1 and 2 being cross-braced to one another and to spine of case
Pedals: L: una corda; R: damper lift. metal on central timber lyre
Case: crosscut “plum pudding” mahogany with ornate brass latches along bentside and above R front leg
Case lid: as for case, with attached long stick inside.
Combined convex-concave keyboard lid and fallboard as for case
Music desk: central hinged upwardly hinged fretted music rest with backward-sliding fretted candle supports on either side
Dimensions(mm): 1995l x 1250w x 300d (ex lid)
Repertoire: Chopin
Provenance: purchased David Winston, Cranbrook Kent 1991
Description
This instrument is very similar to Chopin’s own, now in the National Conservatory in Paris. Though once common, such instruments are now extremely rare, the majority having been concentrated in Paris, where many succumbed to the effects of civil strife and war, notably the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when they were burned, together with harpsichords confiscated from the nobility during the Revolution, for warmth during the siege of Paris. This example was found in the south of France, and restored by David Winston of Cranbrook, Kent, England.(?) Bie notes Chopin’s preference for Pleyel instruments, “whose silvern muffled tone was especially attractive to him,” over those of Erard, his great rival, quoting Chopin’s own words, “If I am out of humour I play an Erard and easily find the tone there ready-made: but if I am in form, and strong enough to make my own tone, I use a Pleyel.” Certainly the action of the present instrument, though capable of almost infinite nuance and subtlety, requires far more precise touch control than that of the collection’s Erard concert grand, the inertia of whose double escapement action “evens out” irregularities of touch.
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