An unexpected encounter with a Yamaha GC1 piano in Mauritius

navindra

Acoustic pianos are far and few between here in Île Maurice, so imagine my surprise when I came across a Yamaha GC1 baby grand piano!

The beach side climate is pretty harsh on pianos here.

Another surprise, someone here even knows how to change piano strings.

Thanks to this new GC1 friend, I was able to

Stay on track with PACT2024.
Make an impromptu recording for PianoTell Recital #1!

It was a tough recording but I made do.

There was a busy event going on around me, loud music playing, and I had neither my tuning nor recording equipment available, but it was still fun!

rsl12

Wow, the owner also tunes the piano? It sounds like your new friend goes as deep into pianos as you do! Did you tell them about Piano Tell?

Also, is that corrosion that I see? I can't imagine spending so much time and effort for something bound to decay so quickly. I can't imagine it's worth it as a "hotel decoration" investment either.

navindra

rsl12 Hah, no idea on who maintains it exactly. 🙂

My "friend", the piano, was in a hotel lobby, but the staff were fine with me using it. Effectively, I was playing a public piano with a fair number of people around. Later that night, a professional musician was playing it, so it's not just decoration.

keff Indeed, so many questions arise for me... it must be really hard to source strings, so no doubt they had to be imported... and apparently there's someone who knows how to swap them out and tune the piano on this little island.

keff

From the serial number a 2004 model. Perhaps the two replaced strings had suffered corrosion damage.

Rubens

Amazing find!

pseudonym58

The establishment must value the piano for its appearance as much as for its sound. In that kind of environment, a digital piano with a good sound system is a much more reasonable choice.

navindra

pseudonym58 It's such a thrill to play though! It's definitely an attraction on its own. I'd be happy to own it even in its current shape... though I guess I would be very scared of breaking a string when tuning it.

I've had my eye on this piano for many years:
https://jkalachand.com/yamaha-grand-piano-gb1k-pe.html

I've checked it out once or twice in the showroom. I think they literally have a single one there. The price has gone up at least 100k rupees over the years but even at the current price of Rs 439,690, it's $9400 USD.

pseudonym58

@navindra In the USA, at least in the Northeast USA where I live, we are spoiled by the large selection of new and used/rebuilt pianos available. I can certainly understand where, in your situation, if an acoustic piano, let alone a decent quality grand piano, is available to play, you want to take advantage of it.

FrankCox

Mauritius.

That's where my wife is from.

She's planning to go there to visit friends in relatives in a couple of months.

navindra

FrankCox Oh wow!

There are not a whole lot of Mauritians around, so definitely an interesting connection!

Aren't you and Syd going as well? 😃

twocats

navindra I know one person from Mauritius (and that's when I had to look up to find out where it was)! She is married to a guy who was in my chamber music program last year. She might be similar to you in age, lives in Amsterdam now. Super outgoing and fun. If you think you might know her I can message you with her first name, but I don't know her full name 🙂

FrankCox

Funny how many people turn up from Mauritius, since it's such a small country.

A few months ago we were in the Regina Costco when a family walked by (husband, wife, couple of little kids) chattering away to each other and my wife said, "Hey, those people are from Mauritius. That's Mauritian Creole!"

I told her that she should zip over and say hello but she said, "Do you want to be here all afternoon?" and didn't do it.

I still think she should have said something to them, but what do I know....

kanadajin

Small world, my next door neighbour is from Mauritius and a very kind lady. Still has family there she visits once in a while, typically for weddings, funerals and the like.

All this is making me wonder if there was a time period when emigration from Mauritius might have been an issue, due to politics, economy, poverty or other … I am afraid I am quite ignorant of the Mauritian history.