Tony Marsico wrote in 011105 MMDigest:

> A concert pianist doesn't play any harder or softer than
> anyone else, or at least not that much, and if he does,
> he shouldn't. :-)

In my experience (I'm an occasional concert performer), concert
pianists _do_ pound the dickens out of the piano in the concert hall,
because otherwise they can't be heard above the big orchestra.

Wayne Stahnke has data files recorded at Boesendorfer SE pianos in
Los Angeles and Vienna.  Concerts performers, such as Earl Wild, who
record using the SE piano, can and _do_ break hammers and strings when
they perform on the concert stage.  The hammer velocities they produce
are accurately recorded on the SE pianos, and the recorded data reveals
blows exceeding 500 cm/sec hammer velocity.

The extreme velocities produced by these concert pianists might be
duplicated with an Ampico pneumatic piano, but only if the stack
suction is increased to well beyond 120 inches suction.  The ordinary
reproducing piano, sold for use in the home, cannot deliver the
shank-bending blow that a concert pianist can.

When special reproducing pianos were built for the 'comparison
concerts' of the 1920s, the instruments were modified to produce much
greater than normal power on the concert stage.  The piano firms didn't
want the live artist to overpower their player piano!

> The reason you want to hear a reproducing system in a 9-foot piano
> is not for the loudness of it, or even the dynamic range, but it
> would be for the tone.

That's quite true in the home, where you don't want to rattle the
windows and break hammers and strings.  But the beautiful tone won't
be really appreciated unless it's played with realistic expression,
and that means the player system must provide convincing dynamic range,
from pianissimo to fortissimo, regardless of the maximum power.
An Ampico playing in "Subdued" mode sounds lifeless.

Robbie Rhodes