Dick Cavett Interview

[MylesBAstor]

...with Oscar Peterson!

[video]http://www.wimp.com/oscarpeterson/[/video]

 

[Kingsrule]

I saw Oscar at the Civic Center in Hartford, CT many years ago.
Him and a piano
He comes on stage, plays a few bars, stands up and says to the audience "you ought to get someone to buy this place a new piano". He sits back down and finishes his concert. If I recall at some point Joe Pass joins in. It was awesome how he dissed the particular Steinway Concert Grand!

 

[jazdoc]

He preferred Bosendorfer's...

 

[Alrainbow]

I do not know who that was playing the piano , but it's obvious he is a special pianists . My 7 year old has just started taking lessons.

Al

 

[astrotoy]

He preferred Bosendorfer's...

Wow, what a great interview. When we were getting our Bosendorfer at the factory near Vienna in 1985, they told us about Oscar Peterson. In the early '50's when Bosendorfer was still recovering from the war (WWII), customers had to come to Austria to buy their pianos. They only built grands and as few as 50-100 a year. They also didn't allow just anyone to buy one. They told us that Oscar Peterson was not allowed to buy one because he played the "wrong" kind of music. (Remember Bosendorfer was the piano of Liszt and Brahms, etc). Only later, after Peterson became much more famous did they eventually sell him a piano.

When we bought ours in 1985 (a 7'2" Model 225 with 92 keys, the biggest ones have 97 keys) they were making about 800 pianos a year, the vast majority grands. In comparison, Yamaha was making 25,000 grands a year, with Steinway (in the US and Germany) somewhere in between. I believe that now the Chinese have overtaken everyone else in terms of numbers. Bosendorfer still makes a relatively small number of pianos, and are owned by Yamaha. They, like Yamaha also make hi-fi speakers.

Larry

 

[astrotoy]

I just read there is a Zenph release of one of their computer reconstructions of an Oscar Peterson performance, recorded on a Bosendorfer in London in 2010, three years after Peterson died. According to the notes, Peterson was very interested and had Zenph play some of their reconstructions for him shortly before his death. The recordings were done with the support of the Peterson Estate. The CD came out in 2011 on Sony and there is a recent HD Tracks download at 96/24. I have a couple of the earlier Zenph releases including their first, a very fine reconstruction of the original Glenn Gould Goldberg variations on SACD (without his incessant vocalizations which drive me crazy on the originals).

Larry

 

[Kingsrule]

You know in thinking about it the piano might have been a Bosendorfer, most likely rented by the Hartford Civic Center to accommodate OP. I remember it looked pretty beat up.


In anycase it was awesome that he stood up, dissed the instrument and sat back down and played, never saying another word the rest of the night!

 

[Joe Whip]

Wow, what a fantastic glimpse, not only into the world of jazz piano, but of the talents of one of the true great musicians in history. I wish there was more of this stuff out their to view. Thanks for the link!