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LA Phil Inside - Fall 2007

In This Issue:

Behind the Scenes

Gettin' in Tune

piano

In pursuit of the ideal sound, with the LA Phil's chief piano technician, Ron Elliott

Over the course of three decades of preparing concert pianos for great artists, Ron Elliott has determined that there are basically two types of pianist: one focuses primarily on the sound the instrument produces, the other on how it feels.

Both keep him working overtime to achieve the desired effects. But part of what makes Ron so cherished by many of the world's best pianists is his ability to anticipate their concerns and address most of them in advance.

"Time is something we don't have a lot of in this business," he says. "I listen to artists practice and rehearse, and I get involved with their work — with every aspect of what they are trying to achieve. The challenge is to stay one step ahead of them," he says, then laughs. "If I ever find myself a step behind, I've had it!"

Twenty-one years of selecting, protecting, and maintaining the Philharmonic's supply of a half dozen or so Steinway Model Ds, while pleasing some of the most demanding artists in the world, hasn't diminished his enthusiasm for the painstaking but satisfying work. But he does have a secret.

"You have to leave your ego at the door."

In the rarified world of almost superhuman sensitivity to the expressive qualities of such a complex instrument as a piano, agreement can be elusive. Not only does each pianist want something different from the same instrument, but their own requirements will vary with the program they're playing.

"It can be a struggle," Ron says with a smile, "but you can't get emotional about it. The artists have a job to do — the hardest job, of course — and I have a job to do, which is to get as close as I can to the sound they want, while protecting the instruments."

The Pianos

Inside the piano studio and backstage workshop at Walt Disney Concert Hall, there is enough room for four of the Philharmonic's nine-foot Steinways and Ron's workbench, but not a lot more.

There is, in fact, one more of the enormous pianos onsite in the Hall that Ron reserves for the exotic tunings sometimes called for in new music. He is also responsible for the care and tuning of two other Model Ds used at the Hollywood Bowl.

Of all the pianos under his care, two premium instruments are reserved for use by soloists at Walt Disney Concert Hall. They sit closest to his bench — the "New York" Steinway and the "Hamburg" Steinway. Concertos require the bigger sound of the American Steinway, while the German Steinway's more intimate sound is often the better choice for recitals and chamber music programs.

On the workbench today sits a brand new Steinway "action," an apparatus of almost sculptural beauty that holds 88 felt hammers and dampers between a piano's keys and its strings. Ron will soon hand-shape each one of the new hammers before installing the new action in the "New York" Steinway, restoring the instrument's original power.

It's hard to imagine using up a Steinway Model D, but the Philharmonic's instruments are used heavily and more or less constantly by artists at the highest end of pianistic power and technique.

"We were hoping to get a full seven years out of the hammers," Ron says. "We only got about four."

The Artists

What artists want from a piano and a tuning largely depends on the kind of musician they are.

Some virtuosos are what Ron identifies as 'old school' — pianists like Alfred Brendel, for whom the music comes first, with, apparently, no close second.

Ron has toured internationally as Brendel's technician, and considers him to be one of the most demanding artists, but also one of the most gracious. Brendel is so particular that he will spend two days with a piano before giving a recital, wanting the voicing and regulation exactly his way. "He needs even, controlled sound. He wants the soft pedal to sound like a pillow. A lot of artists won't play the piano after it's been prepared for Brendel."

Another example of this type of musician is Richard Goode, who literally shuns a spotlight onstage. Goode's selfless musicianship and technique has Ron searching for words. "He gets the most beautiful sound out of a piano. When he plays Beethoven, he is Beethoven."

On the other side are younger artists like Lang Lang and Yundi Li, who have come of age in a culture oriented to the visual elements of performance. As Ron sees it, they have an even more difficult job than the older generation.

"Their artistry is equally about entertainment and the expectations of a new audience. They are incredibly gifted and technically flawless, but have to be conscious of presentation and marketing. Lang Lang, for one, loves the media!"

For this new generation of artist, the piano takes on a different role. "They want a piano that's larger than life. It has to be much flashier, much brighter." Sometimes to a degree that's not always possible! "You do everything you can to please the artists while protecting the pianos," Ron says. "Sometimes you just have to meet in the middle."

An Ideal of Sound

Tuning, voicing, and regulating one of the most complex musical instruments ever devised is an art form, like painting. But also like painting, you have to know when to stop.

"We're all chasing an ideal sound," Ron says. "Artists do it when they come here to choose the piano they want for their performance. I do it when I'm purchasing a new piano for the Philharmonic. I always have a concept of what I want, though I can never quite find it."

This search for the ideal sound has led — as it has in so many fields — to a digital solution. But for Ron, the experience of expressive sound remains a qualitative rather than a quantitative experience, which is why he personally eschews the use of digital tuning aids.

"When you use a machine to tune," he says, "you've lost your emotional involvement with what you do." He likes a tuning to be his own concept, his own creation.

"I like to be personally involved with what I do, to take an artistic approach. I think artists can relate to that, and they appreciate it."

Ron Elliott has been the chief piano technician of the L.A. Philharmonic since 1986, when former Executive Vice President and Managing Director Ernest Fleischmann heard a piano he had tuned for a Hollywood Bowl performance, and offered him the job on the spot.