Post pictures of your pianos here!

Very interesting, Gombessa. Looks very chic!

That looks incredible Gombessa! Do you experience perceiving different colours when you play?

trecorda Thanks Tre!

It's all for a bit of fun, I like incorporating the piano into the silly smarthome stuff I have running.

I often wish I could "perceive colors as I play" in a synesthesia kind of way, but I guess you could say this is the next best thing! The light strip can be set to any color of the rainbow, AND it has a microphone so it can react directly to sounds (piano playing triggers it just fine), so I can set it to flash and wave and do all sorts of stuff in sync with my playing.

If I REALLY wanted to go overboard, I can actually link up all of my house lights and garden to the same system so the entire house and yard and change colors obnoxiously as I play piano. That would NOT go over well with the CEO though.

I love how the inside of the piano looks @Gombessa How cool!!

Here's our most recent instrument- I had a surprise opportunity drop in my lap to pick up a Boesendorfer 225SE reproducing piano early this year and it arrived at my home in California a few months ago.

This is one of 32 production SE models made during Kimball's ownership of Boesendorfer in the late 80s and built into the 225, 275 and 290 semi-concert and concert grand pianos. They were fantastic instruments and very well received, but with no engineering corners cut in the reproducing system design they were far too expensive. When they were new, the SE system added about $60k to the already high price of the acoustic piano. As a result they didn't sell well and were discontinued soon after.

When I bought it from the first owner, the acoustic instrument itself had been well maintained and remains in excellent condition and sounds wonderful. The SE reproducing system electronics had failed, but I have since repaired, adjusted and calibrated the system. I also replaced the computer and I am modernizing the software thanks to support from Wayne Stahnke, the original inventor and engineer of the SE system. This is an ongoing effort, but it's now fully functional.

These instruments sound outstanding as pretty much any Boesendorfer does, but the computer reproducing system takes it to another level, with the ability to exactly reproduce performances that can use the complete dynamic range of the instrument and play back accurately. Anyway, I could natter on and on about it since I have a serious case of 'new toy' syndrome, but will leave it at that. One day soon I am planning to make some video of it playing and will upload to YouTube to share.

In the photo background is our previous instrument that was in this space, a Yamaha C1.

sysadmindave Lovely! Looks like a good space for it, too.

TC3

Thanks! It can be a bit loud for a living room particularly if I'm playing back a full concert performance, but otherwise yes it's a very good spot for a grand piano- my wife and I had that on our requirements list when we bought the house about 5 years ago- 'must have a good space for a grand piano!'.

sysadmindave Anyway, I could natter on and on about it since I have a serious case of 'new toy' syndrome, but will leave it at that.

WOW. Please do share more if you can, there are a small few of us here who would absolutely LOVE to hear more about it.

Is this the same SE system demonstrated by Andres Schiff in early videos, where you needed to have a connected terminal hooked up, and instructions were sent to the piano via command line?

Gombessa
Ok- you asked for it, so here's lots more nattering...

YES, it's that exact same SE system you're thinking of, originally delivered with an IBM PC XT running MS-DOS 3.3. Mine is now running Linux from a tiny Intel NUC computer instead, but it came with the original IBM/DOS computer setup. Currently it's running command-line software (ported from DOS to Linux), but I envision a nice shiny web browser and tablet app interface for it in the future- in progress, but not anywhere near finished yet.

These pianos have been featured in a number of high-quality commercial recordings where the artist recorded on the piano itself using the computer, then the piano performance was audio recorded later as a computer playback (and sometimes with the artist watching). Also Wayne Stahnke produced a couple of CDs in the 90's entitled 'A Window in Time' featuring Ampico piano roll transcriptions of Sergei Rachmaninoff playing some of his own works (one CD) and some of other composers' works (other CD) using the SE system. The transcriptions came from a custom super-accurate Ampico roll scanner he built for the purpose.

There was also a highly regarded audio to SE project done by Zenph (now defunct), converting the 1955 audio recording of Glenn Gould's Bach Goldberg Variations into a performance done on the SE, then released as a CD.

Another couple CDs that come to mind are Dick Hyman playing the music of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington (recorded on SE). They were audio reference quality recordings and are also highly regarded.

These are all wonderful recordings, and they are all available on Apple Music and Spotify- I would encourage a listen!

I have personally been involved with these instruments since the mid-90s, working on repair and customization of the electronics and computer systems for a number of the owners of them, primarily those associated with the Maestro Foundation in Santa Monica CA. [https://www.maestrofoundation.org/]

The Maestro Foundation is a non-profit that lends high-end chamber instruments to gifted up and coming musicians that need them to progress in their abilities and who otherwise would not have access to such instruments. As a partial way to fund this project, they hold concerts for their donating members that often feature the Boesendorfer 275SE that the foundation owns (and is in the founder's house/concert hall in Santa Monica). This is absolutely the finest piano I have ever heard and is truly exceptional among Boesendorfers.

Over the years, I have assisted them with that instrument and others owned by the foundation members, as well as a few others- I've worked on 9 of the 32 that were made, including mine. The Maestro Foundation and other owners have collectively amassed a tremendous library of piano performances recorded on the SE system.

My association with Maestro is how I heard about this piano being available for sale and somehow at an attainable asking price for me, an engineer that loves music but isn't particularly wealthy. This instrument was previously at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM) in Ohio and was the personal piano of Professor James Tocco in his teaching studio and not used by students. After he retired during the pandemic, the university decided to get rid of it as-is since they are a Steinway school and it doesn't really fit with what they're doing now. The acoustic instrument is in great shape for its age save for some minor cosmetic issues- the university did a good job maintaining it. The SE system however was non-functional and the university had given up on repairing it about 15 years ago. I was confident I could very likely repair it, so my wife and I decided to make an offer, thinking that at worst we'd have a fantastic acoustic piano even if the SE system was somehow unrepairable. Fortunately for us, our offer was accepted, and I have been successful in getting it back working how it should!

The quality of performance reproduction from these instruments is absolutely stunning! It accurately reproduces the softest of pianissimos and the loudest fortissimos (which are VERY loud in my home on a semi-concert grand, so I have to temper its dynamic range a touch in software sometimes).

I have barely scratched the surface of the music library, but some of the gems are the original SE recordings of the above-mentioned CDs, along with concert performances by many excellent pianists, some of them incredibly accomplished (Andras Schiff playing Schubert, for example).

Please ask additional questions if you'd like more detail.

sysadmindave What a great piano and what a great story! I love those Window in Time CDs. Congrats on having your own SE!

Wow! It's great that you have the electronics skills to resurrect the recording/reproducing capability. Color me impressed.

My last teacher, Peter Feuchtwanger, spoke about going to Bosendorfer during the period you mentioned, and doing some work with the engineers. One of the focus areas was on "rubato" and how it enlivened playing. Peter was a "bel canto" player, and for him, if one's playing didn't sing, well, it stunk, though he was too much the gentleman to say so. In the examples he played, he unconsciously demonstrated how the first note in a RH melody could precede or follow the sounding of the accompanying LH note. It was also demonstrated that even when chords were played with all notes together, depending on the shading of the voicing, they weren't EXACTLY played together which is what provided color and emphasis.

I hope you find this of interest, and Iook forward to hearing you play your piano soon.

Pallas It is on the gorgeous side. The veneer is bubinga from downed redwood tree roots. I'll take the front covers off and do some interior shots and add them to this.

sysadmindave In the photo background is our previous instrument that was in this space, a Yamaha C1.

congrats on your piano! as far as your C1, do you plan to keep it as well?

HeartKeys

Thanks! We haven't fully decided yet what to do with the C1, but we were thinking we may gift it to my daughter that lives in Kansas now with her own family. If they can't find room for it we may try to sell it locally.

It's an older Disklavier Mark IIXG that we've had for 22 years, and it's been a fine instrument. It has a great tone for a piano of its size (5'3"). My daughter learned to play on it, and my wife taught piano students with it for many years. It's still in good shape and plays very well, despite the obsolete Disklavier components. Hasn't been much desire to play it though with the 225 now in the house... The contrast between the tone quality of the 2 pianos is pretty extreme as you might imagine- the Boesendorfer 225 is a whole other level of instrument and makes any music sound beautiful.

I've been listening to the 'new' (but actually older) piano nearly constantly since I got the reproducing system running again- it sounds SO good!

Seeker
Thanks! It's been a really fun project that combines my love of music and engineering.

I agree that the work of the best pianists concentrates on expression and control of note timing to an extreme degree- to my ear that makes a big difference to the musicality of a performance. Interesting to hear that Bosendorfer R&D was looking for ways to assist pianists to get those qualities.

Seeker
Sorry, I left out of my last message that I REALLY like your Bechstein- it's beautifully made! I'll look for your recordings- can't wait to hear it!

@Seeker and @sysadmindave thank you both for sharing the photos of your beautiful pianos! It’s fun to see them together actually, because I feel like they show the highest levels of the two kinds of piano beauty, a beautiful grand and beautiful upright.