Out of tune recordings
Eric | Sunday, February 14th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
I recently purchased a CD of Horowitz playing Schumann Kinderszenen, the Op 17 Fantaisie and the Arabeske. His performance of the last movement of Kinderszenen, “Der Dichter spricht” is worth twice the price of the CD, just beautiful.
The problem I have is that this CD was obviously made from different takes, and on some of the takes there are unisons that are noticeably and distractingly (to me) out of tune. This is Horowitz, for gods sake. You mean nobody noticed?!
This confirms my experience that very few people, including concert pianists, truly know what a piano should sound like. I know that is heresy, but how can you otherwise explain how many out of tune pianos get recorded?
A great point Eric…Waaay back, I got hooked on Brubeck…Time Out…love the tune “Sweet Meadow Lark”…but I always wondered what there was about the transition from Brubeck to Desmond when the Sax takes over….Fuzzy blends into pure tone…sunshine.
Now I know that the piano is horribly out of tune…back then as a 14 year old it just sounded odd.
Enjoy your blog very much….don’t always agree with your point of view…we’re on different journeys…but I do respect your opinions.
Peter Sumner, Concert Piano Technician.
Modern era Steinway and Sons specialist.
Hi Peter
Thanks a lot for the comment and for your open mindedness regarding our journeys.
Some of the worst tunings are found on Bill Evans recordings. Yes, they were live club recordings etc but jeez, they are so bad! The reality is that the subtleties of the harmony used by people like Evans or Brubeck get lost when the tuning is so bad. This issue is especially sensitive for me since I lined up a tuner for an important recording a couple of years ago. The result is a disc of really great music I can’t listen to! Oh crap.