Gramophone

 

Dear friends of piano music,

this beautiful old gramophone is in the window of a small record store on our street. The children marvel at it, and it always reminds how much listening to music has changed in a relatively short time. In the 19th century people went to a concert, otherwise you had to play yourself, mostly the piano, so that in every well-stocked household with the appropriate means such an instrument could be found - often to the annoyance of the neighbors. "A piano is harmless - the pianist constitutes a danger" (Robert Lembke)

When I was studying piano, it was impossible for me to find an affordable apartment where I could do my piano work. I still vividly remember a singer I accompanied with whom the police were regularly at the door when she had to warm up the voice at home for a matinee on Sunday morning. As a dramatic soprano she was probably as loud as a grand piano. All my fellow students, who practiced seriously, lived in the country in the house of their parents, who probably didn't mind the hours of loud piano playing ...

Today, on the other hand, I can live in the middle of the city and at night, when everyone is asleep, adjust my Clavinova to room volume and practice as long as I want. My piano is made of plastic, but it gives me the freedom I could only dream of before.

Not everything was better in the past.

Kind regards from Heidelberg Kerstin

Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne C-Minor Nr. 21 Op.posth. https://youtu.be/iaHDIRvnQD8