Because of terrible traffic, they had to roll the piano up East 44th Street to Second Avenue and place the piano on the tail lift of the moving truck there. And so, the day came when the movers showed up at 307 East 44th Street to take “CD-86” to the hall. Eugene was in the middle of a European concert tour and would zoom in on the Concorde to make his appearance and be on the next Concorde back to France. It was an instrument not about power, though it had ample reserves of that ingredient, but one of refined, singing elegance.įinally, it was time for the transformed “CD-86” to go out into the world again and this was to occur at the Grammy Awards program in honor of Isaac Stern here in New York City. This work, combined with the inherent beauty of the rest of the instrument, found “CD-86” possessing the most intoxicatingly beautiful tone. We replaced the New York-made action parts, which had some components made of the last of the Teflon, with the newly-introduced Renner action parts from Germany which had long been in use on the Hamburg-made Steinway Pianos. I found a set of vintage early 1940’s Weichert felt Steinway hammers. The plastic sharps were removed, and genuine vintage ebony ones were installed. Russell Grethe, who then re-covered the natural keys with a beautiful, thick, one-piece ivory. And so “CD-86” arrived at my home – and we sent the keyboard to a talented elderly man in Wells, Maine, Mr. Once garnered, it was agreed that Steinway would send me “CD-86”, to my apartment, and we would commence with a series of modifications which would hopefully make the instrument most ideal for Eugene. He had asked me to keep a lookout for a potentially beautiful piano that would then be reserved exclusively for him while remaining the property of the Steinway Concert Department. This is best illustrated during our time with perhaps the most gorgeous-sounding of all the concert grands we used, Steinway & Sons “CD-86”, a 1983 vintage piano I discovered for Eugene in the Steinway Concert Department in the late 1980’s. I can say that no other pianist ever took such an interest in me and my ideas, despite my having gone down some rocky and downright wrong and treacherous roads. This enabled us to take our own pianos with us. In time, a nationwide tour commenced in 1988 using a specially-designed truck that G.M.C. This resulted in more such events and soon I was traveling to many concerts that he had planned. A frantic call came in which found me canceling all other appointments and on a jet to that concert venue. The first time he asked me to care for a piano at one of his concerts came as an emergency request while he was in Sarasota, Florida in 1987. They were the retired Steinway & Sons “CD-226”, which I named “Del”, and my new model “D” concert grand piano, serial #481868, named “Natasha”, which I purchased in June 1983 while working at Steinway & Sons. Soon, Eugene would be stopping over at my place at the Beaux Arts on East 44th Street in New York City to rehearse and practice on my two concert grand pianos I had at the time. After spending the day with their Steinway “B”, Eugene tried it and then exclaimed: “ Well now, how are we going to have you come down from now on to care for my pianos?” On one of my visits, he brought me over to the Istomin’s splendid home on Connecticut Avenue where Eugene had been suffering with piano problems. He insisted on having me continue caring for his two “children”. Grayson owned two Steinway & Sons concert grand model “D” pianos and had recently moved back to his native Washington D.C. I first met Eugene and Marta in 1985 through a mutual friend, Grayson Nichols, who was a Steinway salesman and a Steinway piano lover.
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