Click here for a great Slate article, make sure you read to the end.

The word from Vienna is that my pal Gabriela Montero (yes, she played at the inauguration) just had a big success in Vienna, playing Brahms 1 on a Bosendorfer 290 with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Gabby is the real deal and if you don’t know of her, you should.  Sublime musical intelligence, warm personality, beautiful, huge sound with the added twist of being a skilled and natural improvisationist (is that a word?). This is improvisation in the classical sense, the ability to take a theme and spontaneously turn it into a polished performance. These were considered common skills for performers 100 (maybe 150) years ago but they have since disappeared from the scene. Properly done it is more than a parlor trick. There should be  all the structure of the sonata allegro form, including a development of the theme, often with variations as well as a recapitulation and coda. The idea is that the knowledge of musical structure and construction is so integrated in the performer that she can apply it at will.

Gaby speaks of her “gift” and takes little credit for being anything other than a channel, but we all know that there is more than that. It is hard for an audience to connect with improvisation in the true classical sense since the subtleties are beyond easy reach. She frequently works with themes called out from the audience that are more often than not pop or jazz related. While she does a good job here, I always long to hear her stay in the more serious area.  What she does then is truly amazing.

There was some recent news that seems to be universally misunderstood. The Bosendorfer factory in Wiener Neustadt is NOT moving. However, our administrative offices, currently on Graf Starhemberggasse in Vienna ARE moving to the factory in Wiener Neustadt.

The Graf Starhemberggasse facility used to the be the factory but now is mostly empty. The consolidation of space makes perfect business sense. The Salon on Bosendorferstrasse, in the back of the Musikverien will remain our primary presence in Vienna.

June…November…not so bad, right? Of course, a lot has happened during this period, but some things can’t really be talked about…strategy, plans, that sort of thing.

Here are a couple of items:

North American Dealers meeting in Las Vegas in August – big success

International Dealers Meeting in Vienna in September – big success

Bottom dropping out of the economy in October.. – real crap

Bosendorfer Piano channel on YouTube – cool in a nerdy kind of way.

(www.youtube.com/bosendorferpianos)

Finally I have a place for a lot of the video I’ve been shooting.

Spent a quick 4 days in Vienna in May. Of course, the week before I was there and the day I left were beautiful but while I was there, it was AGAIN WITH THE CRUDDY EUROPEAN WEATHER!!

I took my new very fancy HD video camera and spent the Sunday of arrival finding Ludwig Bosendorfers grave in the Central Cemetery. It’s quite humble, away from any of the big-shot sections.

Michael Nissen of Bosendorfer, the current keeper of history there, tells me that that is how it was specified in Bosendorfers will. In fact, the story goes, he wanted only his first name LUDWIG.  It’s a little frustrating because Carl Schweighofer has a dramatic site, as does the Streicher family. And how often do we hear about either one of those pianos today,eh?

Ludwig Bosendorfer grave marker

Ludwig Bosendorfer grave

This trip included detailed discussion about a very particular rosewood finish, stimulating technical discussion at the factory (!) all set in gloomy early European winter weather, gray skies and rain, sometimes a lot.

The problem with traveling to interesting places on business is that you rarely get the time to really experience a city. I’ve been to Vienna at least 20 times and love it but still don’t really feel like I know my way around. It probably is partly the American idea that since I have never driven a car around, how can I be expected to know anything?

On the Saturday I left, I had lunch with Rupert L and his 2 sons at the Cafe Central, one of the real Viennese coffee houses. What really great experience! Rupert intentionally brings his sons regularly so they can learn true Viennese culture.

This has been a crazy month. I’ve been traveling every weekend.

Made a whirlwind trip to Europe, flew into and out of Munich for a trip to Vienna with a dealer. Left warm sunshine for clammy rainy Europe. Well, I guess summer is over. But it is always good to visit the mothership and every trip to the factory shows me something new (if nothing else, I learn my way around a little better).

For one thing, I saw with my own eyes that the beech cap on the inner rim does not extend to the bass side, except for the model 280. That was the source of personal embarrassment on PianoWorld recently. The factory has really been working on making the 280 a more familiar sounding piano, while still remaining a Bosendorfer. So,the inner rim has much more beech, not just the perimeter cap. It also has that rail around the inside top of the outer rim (got that?). There is another dramatic change in the construction of the 280 that will be seen in this country in the next couple of months (the next time we bring in a new 280). No, my lips are sealed…it is very visible if you know where to look…lets see if anyone notices….