(originals in numerous museums and collections) copy by Phillip Bel and Frank Hubbard; Boston Mass; assembled by Robert Davies, Levens Northumbria, 1975
Description
Keyboard: single reversed manual
Keyboard materials: ivory sharps, ebony naturals
Compass: 5 octaves FF-f3
Pitch: A415 Hz nontransposing
Tuning: equal tempered
Action: Viennese prellmechanik with escapement
Hammer coverings: leather
Bridge: single
Strings:
- FF-F 13 note bichord brass;
- F#-Bb2 34 notes bichord iron;
- e2-f3 14 notes trichord iron
Dampers:
- FF-eb2 47 notes; leather wedge overdampers,
- e2-f3 14 notes : felt pad overdampers
Frame: timber
Accessories: damper lift by knee lever moderator by drawstop
Case: American walnut cherrywood
Lid: as for case
Fallboard: sloping. as for case
Music desk: detachable, as for case
Legs: three tapered, fluted Louis XV legs
Dimensions: 2140 x 960 x 222 mm (ex lid) on legs 630 mm long
Repertoire: Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven, Schubert and contemporaries.
Condition category: I
Rectification required: none
Concert dates: 29.08.87, 27.03.88, 18.08.90, 12.05.91, 29.04.01, 28.04.02 following whoch on load to Dr. K.Power, Armidate, NSW
Commentary
This instrument is a modern copy, modified from designs by Philip Belt. Stein’s actions were preferred by Mozart to those of other German and Austrian makers, especially because of their shallow keydip and reliable escapement, which made rapid repetition possible. Though this “Viennese” action was only a temporary and parallel development to the orginal Cristofori-Erard “English” action which has developed continuously from the piano’s origins in the early eighteenth century to today, it remains significant as the action for which all of Mozart’s and Schubert’s piano music, and much of Haydn’s and Beethoven’s, was written. This, the archetypal “grand fortepiano” is more frequently copied than all other types together.
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