Grieg Piano Concerto, Op. 16. A Minor, 1st Movement

[zigouigouix]

As an Ampico owner myself (Grotrian Steinweg 6'2"), I'm totally amazed by this performance, and instrument. Almost when I remember Douglas Anderson, revealing how commercial and of low artistic value reproducing pianos could be ...

[ampicoab]

@zigouigouix Thanks for the comment. I don't know Douglas Anderson. Perhaps you meant Douglas Henderson who is a known critic.

[zigouigouix]

@ampicoab You're right : L. Douglas Henderson, from Artcraft Music Rolls ...

[bigcity233]

Fantastic restoration! One of the best I've heard. Mason & Hamlin with an Ampico B - it doesn't get any better in the realm of reproducing pianos. Great sound and great recording. When you hear recordings such as these, you can understand why Ampico was the market leader in the reproducing piano field.

[aardvaark069]

The Ampico plays so much more musically than the duo-art. It's surprising that duo-art is known as the calssical music specialist when in my opinion classical is what duo-art does worst of all.

[bigcity233]

@aardvaark069 i agree that the Ampico has the edge, however, when well restored and properly maintained, the Duo-Art can be excellent. Check out the Youtube videos posted by Steinway XR and Bartolomochristofari - both have excellent examples.

[aardvaark069]

@bigcity233 I have a question for you. If the A system had two crescendos so that one part of the music could crescendo while another part of the music could stay out of it, that seems far more sophisticated musically (and realistic too) than the B concept where there is only one crescendo for the whole keyboard. If one part of the piece crescendos then the whole thing crescendos. That seems to be a far less sophisticated system to me, and yet people seem to think that the B is the best. Why?

[ampicoab]

@aardvaark069 The question is understandable, but do you really want to dissect what is behind the music? As long as the editors can make the music sound correct and good, who cares about two crescendo devices. Rolls made after 1927 have identical bass and treble crescendo coding, so the pianos playing those rolls need only one. Compared to the "A" system, the "B" crescendo has only 50% of the authority, but acts twice as fast. I'm still trying to sort that out after 35 years of study.

[gnativerson]

this is one of the best things I've ever heard ! - how was the piano miced ?

[ampicoab]

@gnativerson Thanks for the comment. Two Shure SM 81 mics were used. One is centered 12 inches over the bass strings and pointed toward the hammers at a 45 degree angle, while the other mic is over the treble strings. It is aft of the hammers, about 12 inches high over the bridge, and pointed slightly forward, towards the hammers. Both mics are completely under the piano lid.

[Thijsie92]

Very nice, but I'm guessing by all the adverts in and around the video that some company falsely made a copyright claim about it?

[ampicoab]

@Thijsie92 The adverts haven't showed up on the American version. The claim of musical content ownership was made, which probably has no merit.  If the adverts show up here, I will delete the video.

We're starting to see the ugly side of You Tube.

[Thijsie92]

@ampicoab You don't need to delete the video to get rid of the adverts. I recently had a couple of videos that were falsely claimed by some random company, who I think are just trying to make money for free off of people's video's. You can combat the claim with a single click of a button, and the claim should be gone. If it is ever investigated the YouTube people will see that the claim made no sense.

[zigouigouix]

Incredible performance from a top restored top quality Ampico piano ... I'm presently restoring a 6'2'' Ampico myself, and I hope to get the same results some day. Thanks for sharing !

[gerardbedecarter]

A beautiful restoration.

[DuoArtDanOz]

Great work , just fantastic! , always nice to see a happy ending for a player that had been gutted , but then restored once again.

[martinadler73]

Wow, fantastic restoration of the piano, great sound, interpretation and transciption. Maybe I didn't get it, but who is playing?

[ampicoab]

@martinadler73 The description has been upgraded to contain that information. Soon, movements 2 and 3 will be available.