Christopher Taylor playing a rare kind of piano. Photograph: Fred R. Conrad /NYT/Redux/eyevine
News from America about a rare Steinway double-keyboard piano, with 164 keys, four pedals and one set of strings, upon which a Mr Christopher Taylor was to perform Bach's Goldberg Variations. Bach specifically asked for them to be played on a double-keyboard harpsichord, so why not try that instead? He'd never heard of a piano.
I don't want to sound poncey, but I have a double-manual (keyboard) harpsichord. What a heavenly instrument it is. You can play all night without disturbing the neighbours. It has a mute stop to make it quieter, a stop to make it sound like a lute, a stop to play an octave higher, and a coupler, to play two sets of strings together, because you can't change the dynamics just by touch. It has three sets of strings, one four foot and two eight foot, and it sounds divine, so beat that Mr Taylor.
Alright, you can play octaves on your piano with one finger and an octave plus two or three without stretching, and you don't have to get your poor fingers all jumbled up playing tricky Goldberg crossovers, but that seems a bit wet to me. Just do some more practice. Or stick to Diabelli.
