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Franz Mohr talks about pianos in a different way than you may be accustomed to. He might start with the wood: close-grained Alaskan sitka, Eastern seaboard or European spruce, resinous sugar pine, hard-rock maple. He'll touch on labor: 400 different craftsmen spending nine months putting 5000 pieces together. There are the serial numbers -- some famous, among a certain set -- of the finished products: CD 75, or CD 223, or his beloved CD 314 503. And only then might he get to the Who's Who of concert pianists of the last century: Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould, Rudolf Serkin and Van Cliburn, Artur Rubinstein and Andr� Watts. Franz Mohr worked with all of them.
From 1968 until 1992, Mohr was the "head concert technician" for Steinway and Sons pianos. He traveled the world to tune, tweak, regulate, and repair the pianos of the masters before their major performances and recording sessions. He learned, early on, that Horowitz favored a very light, responsive action (and found it, with Mohr's help, in CD 314 503), and that Rubinstein sought more resistance in the keys. He learned that pianos, like people, have natural emotional tendencies. Some are big and brash, born for the grand hall. Others shine in small chamber conversation.
Franz Mohr will join us in the studio to talk about all of this, and more. Are you interested in the backstage lives of the pianists he's worked for? Or perhaps the pianos he's worked on? Are you a pianist yourself? Have you found the piano of your dreams? If not, what would it feel like? What would it sound like?
Photo credit: Crescendo.org
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What is the difference in piano sizes? Don't they all have eighty eight keys and so the same available notes? Concert grand vs baby grand?
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Same keys and notes, yes. Just a smaller soundboard -- and, consequently, a smaller sound.
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Thanks.
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Except some pianos have more keys. Some Boesendorfer models have more. 97, for example.
http://www.boesendorfer.com/index.php?menu=8&lang=en -
I have a Steinway Baby Grand, in our family since early 1900's and has been at the beach for the last 40 years,with heaters underneath. It has suffered though and needs serious work, beyond tuning. Could Mohr suggest someone who may be able to rejuvinate this wonderful family heirloom? Thankyou.
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Please excuse..."Mr. Mohr".
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Hi,
I was wondering if there are any piano tuners still offering apprenticeships, or are piano tuning correspondence courses the only way to learn how to tune pianos and break into the field.
Thanks. -
Yes there are, in the US look for a Piano Technicians Guild. I'm in Portland Oregon and right across the river in Vancouver Washington there is The Piano Hospital.
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I play the French Horn. I suppose I love playing horn for the same reason Harley riders love their bikes: it's not at all a versatile thing or an easy thing to handle -- in fact it's downright precarious -- but it has a big, beautiful sound. And it looks great, too.
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I work in a technical field where my clients don't care to hear the details of why something is difficult. How did you respectfully deal with artists who don't want to hear the physics behind why a piano becomes out of tune or why the environment is effecting the tuning?
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As a violist, I'm interested in your stance on equal temperament tuning and how you "hear" modern day traditional piano tuning. have you dealt with artists who differ in perspective in equal temperament tuning, have you ever had to adjust tuning for the artists ear?
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This is a thank you, TOL, for producing one of the very best shows I have heard on OPB in a long time. Mr. Mohr is a delight--and he has surely enlightened many listeners.
--Bonnie -
Comments are now closed.
I would like to know what Mr. Mohr himself likes when he can set up a piano for himself. Dark? Rich? Bright? Other? I have often found that tuners (like most instrument care specialists) have their own sense of what they like... having heard these grand instruments for years, I am sure Mr. Mohr does too.
My second question would be what performance (pianist, orchestra/symphony & piano forte) most moved him?