I just wish he hadnt delayed playing the modern piano after playing the "Mozart era" piano. Comparing the two a-b, a-b, works best when you play them back to back, not a and then five minutes later, b.
Beethoven frequently wrote letters to piano makers asking them to make stronger, louder pianos and it always makes me sad Beethoven never got to hear a modern steinway because a Steinway is literally everything he wanted in a piano.
Level of detail for casual, interested viewer: perfect. Presenter's knowledge of subject: perfect. Camera operator showing the content clearly and not trying to make a name for himself in Hollywood via an educational video: perfect.
Of course they will, as anyone who has ever watched a Warner Brothers cartoon can attest. And do you know what sound they make if you drop one into a coal mine? A flat "miner." (Sorry. Couldn't help it.)
No all of you are, wrong, Mozart is wealthy back then which is why, his songs are happy, but Chopin lived in a revolutionary period which triggered his emotions to write music
I was a student just killing time by practicing the Waldstein Beethoven sonata before a choir concert at Governer's State University in Illinois. David Schrader was there for some reason, and excitedly exclaimed "the Waldstein!" He said something nice about how I was playing it and left me alone. He is one of the kindest teachers I remember, and also THE most talented. David Schrader is better at any keyboard than 99.9 percent of keyboardists.
He looks like a nice guy. You get a good feeling about him even just watching the video. He seems like a highly intelligent, but thoughtful person who is passionate about these instruments. And those hands! They look so graceful and he touches each instrument with respect and care.
Can you imagine Debussy on that Viennese piano? With that moderator, the arpeggios would just flow together like a dreamy breeze. Thank you, Mr. Schrader! This is as concise and informative as it is enjoyable!
Agree. I also have no problem listening to him as I have with some other people on this channel. They got some accent that makes it harder to detect what they say. I'm not English speaker so clear pronunciation is precious to me. My ears can't decode muffled sounds of some people's speech as native speakers do. Though I believe that sometimes they got same trouble as well.
The Steinway piano is horrifying, it is all I ever heard growing up and in church and it is so muffled and lacking clarity I fear it might’ve stifled my IQ level.
You trade a layered distinct quality for lushness and depth. Would be great to make an instrument that combined the two somehow. I did enjoy the Mozart better on the clav.
I think thats because classical composers like mozart were much closer to composers like bach who used the harpsichord so they were more influenced by boroque style which was all about precision, and counterpoint, not dynamics and warmth which is more of a romantic thing for expressing emotion. I dont really know tho.... just my hypothesis.
What do you mean by "clarity." I didn't hear more clarity from the older piano. I heard about the same clarity from each. I didn't perceive a lot of warmth from the big Steinway. I thought the tone of the older piano had more warmth. The Steinway's tone was rather aggressive, strident. What is warmth though? I actually like the tone on the older piano, the one that didn't have 500 pounds of cast iron making sure that the 20 tons of tension from the strings didn't make the device flex, bend like the wooden device used to send arrows on their way. I think with the older piano, the tone dropped off more gradually. A note on the Steinway dropped off rather suddenly, dropped off quite soon after the string was struck, to a point, got rather low, and then dropped off slowly. The old piano dropped off more evenly. By the way "piano" is an abbreviation for clavichord con piano e forte. That is, clavichord with the ability to speak both softly and loudly. Meaning that the original clavichord, no matter how hard you struck the key, it produced the same loudness (not very loud). The improved clavichord had the ability to play loud as well as soft, and the Steinway, supposedly the most improved, had the ability to play just as soft, but also rather louder. But not 7 times as loud even though it weights maybe 7 times as much. That is a monstrously large piece of cast iron it has inside. Incidentally, if I recall correctly, between the old piano and the steinway were intermediate pianos which had several smaller pieces of cast iron instead of one, large casting - for which the technology to make had not arrived yet.
THIS video is perfect, a lot of demonstrations, comparisons, history and mechanism explanations. Unlike the Viola de gamba and the Violin ones, I really wish they were as good as this one.
You can really hear the harpsichord's sound influence in the earlier piano, It's got a hint of that twangy sound that the harpsichord has, but as more of a buzz than a twang. Nowadays, "twangy" is the last thing people think of when they hear "piano". It's cool to see how musical taste can change instruments over time, likely without anyone actually noticing. That felt insert needs a comeback, though.
Three years late, but it still exists in some uprights as a "so neighbours won't kill you for practicing at night" option. It really gives a different tone, mine sounds a lot like an electric piano's bass in the second octave. It's really fun to play around with.
I'm hard pressed to say that the modern piano sounds "better" than the old one. The sound certainly has fewer imperfections. But that old piano sounds fantastic. Perhaps its because I'm not used to it, but the old one has character that the new one doesn't.
The modern piano seems to me a very industrial product whereas the older version is more organic and sensitive. My favorite is the harpsichord with it's clarity - great for Bach!
@@ThiloAbend actually they would use a paint that dosen't blend with the original paint in case they mess something up and need to use solvent to clean it off
After hearing the sonata on the modern piano, hearing it again on the pianoforte was quite interesting. It sounds clearer, brighter, like a chirping bird. It's really nice to hear how Mozart would've heard his sonata, it almost sounded more Mozart-ey? I don't know, the sound just fits better on the pianoforte. The piano makes it sound more beautiful (I would love to hear an actual German Steinway in person someday), but it seems like something is lost. Very interesting video. Shame it's doesn't have the attention it deserves.
Yes!! Something is lost. The modern pianos are "neutral" instruments, that is what he already says, that the sound tone color does not vary. So even if it's a more beautiful sound it lost power.
I always love that powerful sound a Steinway grand piano makes. I've got a baby grand at my mum's house, but then you get on one of those beautiful big Steinways, especially in an auditorium designed for classical music concerts, and they just blow you away!
At the end of the lesson, I would have enjoyed hearing the same baroque piece played on each of these instruments, in rapid succession and without commentary, so I could get a better feeling for the tone and character of each.
I came across this video while listening to Bach on the harpsichord. I have played the piano for 50 years, and did not know the history of the instrument. Many thanks to BaroqueBand for these most informative videos. I want these keyboards in my home!
How is it underrated? It is the most studied instrument in the world, the instrument for which most compositions are written, and the most widespread instrument.
Excellent. This man is a first rate keyboard player, and a very good musician, unlike other people on RU-vid who talk about pianos, and demonstrate the instruments lamentably.
It's my dream to get my fingers on every one of these instruments one day. I love the sound of all of them, they're all so beautiful! I'm really not sure if I could ever find an actual clavichord, but who knows...
My piano teacher had a pump organ which she sometimes allowed me to play. I like playing it, even though I had to constantly pump the foot pedals to power it, because it had such beautiful sound.
I'm not a pianist, I am not really into classical music though I do admire a lot of it, I am not really into pianos ... I watched the whole thing, both videos and loved it. Wonderfully explained and a treat to listen to. I really love the sound of the south german / vienna style kind of pianos. Best 20 minutes of the day so far. Thank you and everyone that made this possible.
He wrote for the texture he had and it shows. Original/authentic instrumental performance of early music often sounds better than modern because the music suits the instruments. If you ever get a chance to listen to the Mozart Symphonies performed by Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music, I’d suggest it - I think they sound better than modern orchestra for the same reason you like the fortepiano. But I find that phenomenon stops at Mozart. Beethoven wrote so big he usually sounds better on modern orchestras and modern pianos. The modern piano sustain sings better for slow passages like the first movement of the Moonlight or the middle movement of the Pathetique. What I find interesting about experimenting with Beethoven on a fortepiano is that his big stuff goes from sounding dramatic on a modern piano to sounding melodramatic on a fortepiano. The drama on the older instrument almost resembles silent movie music - you get more drama by exaggerating the crap out of it, which utterly wouldn’t work on a Steinway or Bosendorfer. In other words, the instrument affects the logic of the performance.
Oh, no, you're not the only one. I'm not myself an specialist, nor a harpsichordist, but I feel, like David, that each instrument is related to a certain and/or specific music. Each instrument evokes something peculiar, and brings a singular atmosphere. I can't say that I prefer the older instruments, all I can say is that they thrill me. That's part of the mistery and the miracle of music
I agree with all of you about the beauty of the piano-forte! When he plays the excerpt from the Mozart sonata, that tone color variation when he suddenly hits the keys stronger in the F - G - B part is just beautiful! The modern piano just can't emulate this. This is really a problem of the modern piano.
8:29 This applies to all instruments (not just Keyboards, but also Woodwinds, Strings, Brass, Percussion, even Singing) because by studying how the historical instruments worked, it'll modify your approach to make for a clearer, nicer performance on the modern instruments.
I realize this series is about Baroque instruments, but it would have been cool to have a part 3, that covers the modern electro mechanical pianos, like the Fender Rhodes, the Clavinet, and Yamaha electric grand. It's also worth pointing out that modern fully electronic pianos/keyboards can be set up to have different sounds when played harder/softer, like the older style acoustic piano. Modern keyboards can play an astonishingly wide variety of high quality sounds, that I would love to see put in the hands of the great composers of the past.
You can tell why Mozart composed the way he did, given the style of instrument he had to work with. I think my favorite keyed instruments has got to be a toss up between the harpsichord and the celesta.
I think that the modern piano sounds a little bit colder than the Viennese one, if that makes sense. Not worse, just different. I love all of the instruments presented.
I think the best music is written because of the constraints. They try to get every bit out of the instrument whereas a modern piano might make them miss the big picture. If that makes sense... Also the modern piano might have more notes and a way to play both hard and soft, it has less options because of the intonation as shown in the video. I'm quite glad the old masters used the instruments they did.