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The Barenboim piano unveiled / Musical Toronto

Steinway instruments, which have been the gold standard in pianos for a very long time and are nearly always the first choice of concert artists, have proven to be nearly ideal for repertoire from Bach to Elliot Carter. Daniel Barenboim was one of those artists, until he had the opportunity in 2011 to play an instrument originally owned by Franz Liszt.

Struck by the "transparent sound quality and distinguishable colour registers" of this 200-year-old instrument, Barenboim asked the Steinway engineers if they could duplicate these qualities on a modern instrument; they confessed that they could not. That sent Barenboim to the instrument maker Chris Maene in West Flanders (Belgium). After several years of development, Maene came up with exactly what Barenboim was looking for and on this new CD we can hear the instrument that so excited Barenboim.

READ THE FULL Musical Toronto ARTICLE  &  WATCH THE BBC Video