The initial scepticism I had about hearing this instrument very quickly changed to awe at its amazing sonority. And Hania is such a fabulous musician and composer. Glorious combination! 👏❤️
So happy to have discovered Hania Rani recently and what an extremely pleasant surprise to now discover this amazing instrument. What an absolutely unbelievable sound. Even though unlikely I so wish to hear this instrument live one day.
I can't get enough. It started with hearing Nils Frahm and then down the rabbit hole I fell. What an amazing piano juxtaposed with phenomenal performers and brilliant compositions. Thank you David.
Just a follow up.... I've listened to this probably 50 times now. SUN has quickly become one of my favorite songs. I've listened to the original on Tidal and this is hands down better. I'd like to see Hania perform Hawaii Oslo on the M450i. Music is a passion. I have several $k invested in my sound system, and this instrument, your particular piano, lights up the room in a surreal dreamscape manner. It just resonates like no other recordings of any piano that I've found. It's unique tones are beautiful enough that I've actively sought out music recorded on it. The scale makes you feel like your a mouse who's living inside a grand piano. Nihls's Solo Remains, recorded @196k hz, captures this better than RU-vid's compression allows. I do hope you invite more pianists to make studio recordings on the M450i, and make sure that it is searchable via song credits.
Thanks a lot for your kind feedback, I really appreciate..!! We do have plans for a series of recordings, it all takes time... building the pianos presently occupies me totally, but things should brighten up in the near future, after I've moved all operations to my native country, Latvia, having much better perspectives here to enhance our capacity. Thanks again!
This is modern music I can get behind. I thought this would be a gimmick but the overtones are lovely and the composition fits nicely with the instrument's harmonics.
I listened to Hania's compositions so many times and every single time gave me unearthly feelings I can't express. How do you do that, Hania?! It's beautiful. And the instrument just makes it more magic... Thank you :)
Oh wow... Such a beautiful composition and beautiful performance! I was lucky enough to play the model 370 once and what impressed me most was the wonderful clarity of each note. This piece really showcases that
This is a beautiful video and moving composition and one can get a taste of the sonorities of the instrument, but I would love to be in the room where it is played, to be able to feel the depth of the sound that that can't be heard.
Thanks a lot for your kind feedback, Tim! One day you will be in that room, we're working on spreading these pianos to important places around the globe... :-)
Inwould love to have one like this what impresses me is the sound board and the heigth and that type. Of sound quality i wonder when ehen these will go on sale. Beutiful art of work David.
Not sure if you got my reply Mr. Klavins. I visualized rotating the frame (strings, soundboard, and the hammer striking line) 180 degrees, and then displacing the acoustic arrangement downwards (no rotation) to the new position of the hammer striking line). Thanks for your answer.
If the frame is completely rotated, but the action placed according to the hammer striking line, it's still the same problem - the pin block / tuning pins would disappear behind the action.
An upright piano with a warm sound. It's unbelievable what long strings and large soundboards can do. But, after all, it is still an upright piano, and they use springs, so repetition isn't really possible, and if it was actually a grand piano with the same string sizes it would definitely sound better because the hammer speed is faster on the grand piano (this creates an even richer sound). Dynamic expression/control seems easy on this piano though, and I guess it's probably because of the long strings. But of course, on a grand piano it would have been even easier because of the gravity ;-) Yes, I did notice that on a grand piano I can play pianissimos very easily but on my 118cm upright piano it's quite hard!
Repetition is possible fine, just needs more 'work' by the pianist... a grand piano (horizontal) of this size would suffer mechanical insufficiency, since the action would need to be placed deeper inside the piano and thus the keys would become over-dimensioned (too long), which would significantly harm repetition.
Great piano and Hania Rani is a wonderful pianist and composer! What is the material of the orange felt? The sound is perfectly clear, not "blurred" at all.
Thanks for your kind feedback! For an optimal resonance of the string it needs a striking point rather close to one end of the string, like 1/8 in the bass and middle part, 1/8 to 1/24 (descending) on a logarithmic scale from a1 (note no. 49) to the highest c (note 88). The reason for this is a bit complicated to explain, but essentially it is tied to the relation of the hammer speed / mass to the strings' amplitude at any given point of it's active (vibrating) length, as well as the harmonics (partials) you want to invoke (or avoid).
"I am so rich and skilled that my piano is upright". "Ha! Everyone knows that a rich, professional pianist needs to play a grand piano, at least!". The upright piano:
I don't play piano, and I am confused. At 1:05, there begins a repeating low bass note, but I don't see her hitting any really low notes on that beat. Is this a multi-track recording?
I see her hitting the notes we hear... :-) It's not a multi-track recording, just the audio and video are separately recorded and synchronized later - maybe there's a few slight glitches.
What is the design constraint that forces you to put the player in an elevated position ? It is not possible to put the player at ground level, with the frame vertical ?
To put the pianist (action, keyboard) on the ground level, the entire acoustic arrangement (strings, tuning pins, pinblock, etc..) had to be flipped 180 degrees around the hammer striking line - everything you see above the keyboard would travel beneath the keyboard, the action, tuning pins, etc.. in short, it's impossible.. unless you chose a complicated hammer action with hammers hanging instead of standing, which slows down the repetition to such a degree that it makes even halfways virtuous playing impossible.
If this had to be made horizontal, the action would actually sit so deep inside the piano (because of the given striking point of the hammers), that the key would have to become extremely long, thus heavy, thus the repetition ability of the action would significantly suffer.
@@GiantPianoMusic A grand piano with strings and a soundboard that long could be made if the key levers were made of titanium in the shape of a “C” channel cross section. Also, the wippens, shanks, and some other action pieces could be made of carbon fiber composite material for additional reduction in weight and inertia.
