# Unusual Piano Recordings



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Good piano recordings all converge on about the same sound. Main mic about 6-8" from the strings, another ambient mic(s) picking up ambience. Piano freshly tuned. Player silent.

Makes me want to hear something different (anarchist that I am). La cathédrale engloutie recorded in a cave. Ragtime played on a wildly out-out-tune bar piano. Outdoor pianos. Underwater pianos. A piano on fire. A piano made of plastic.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Whilst folks roll their pianos outdoors, set them on fire & and then dunk them underwater, in the meantime you might be somewhat entertained by the off-tune piano utilized by Henry Mancini in a few of his film scores such as *Wait until Dark* or *The Night Visitor*.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Have a look at my thread here 






Avant garde music for that piece of furniture called a piano. - Page 2


Avant garde music for that piece of furniture called a piano. - Page 2



www.good-music-guide.com





And here






Extreme instrumental musique concrète


Extreme instrumental musique concrète



www.good-music-guide.com


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Thanks, but I'm not looking for unusual music for the piano. I'm looking for unusual piano recordings, or recordings of unusual pianos.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

NoCoPilot said:


> Thanks, but I'm not looking for unusual music for the piano. I'm looking for unusual piano recordings, or recordings of unusual pianos.


The Asian female YouTuber with the last name Sol has recently given example of a piano with a mute pedal that was very exotic and beautiful.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)




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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

NoCoPilot said:


> Thanks, but I'm not looking for unusual music for the piano. I'm looking for unusual piano recordings, or recordings of unusual pianos.


How about this









Inside the Hearing Machine: Beethoven on his Broadwood | Orpheus Institute


CD and booklet (96 pages), published by EPR-Classic, and documentary




orpheusinstituut.be





or this recording on the stein vis-a-vis piano

Mozart am Stein vis-à-vis - Harmonia Mundi: HMC901941 - download | Presto Music 

or the sonata by Norbert Hadrava here, played on a combined piano and organ -- you can see it on the cover

Collection Ad Libitum, Vol. 1: Clavicordes et pianos by Norberto Broggini & Alain Roudier on Amazon Music - Amazon.com


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## advokat (Aug 16, 2020)

This is a recording made on a pedal piano. "The pedal piano was briefly fashionable in the middle decades of the 19th century. Originally designed so that organists could practise at home, it attracted the attention of a number of composers who were tempted to write pieces specifically for it. Alkan and Schumann are the best known of them now, but Saint-Saëns also wrote a pedal piano piece, and Gounod was inspired in the 1880s to write a whole group of concertante pieces for a young French pedal piano virtuoso, who was in fact Alkan's son"









This is a picture of how the recording was made. The quote is from a critic in The Guardian, who disliked the record. (The Guardian critics have peculiar tastes). I do not agree. While it is certainly not at the top of the piano repertoire, it is quite enjoyable, I listen to it periodically (as I love Gounod in general). 
.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Mmmm, thanks Advokat. I had not heard of the pedal piano before: includes a foot pedalboard (like an organ) for striking the bass strings. The Gounod recording you reference above is lovely, and I may buy it for the music (I too love Gounod!) but, frankly, the piano in this recording－if, indeed a pedal piano was used－sounds exactly like every other piano I've ever heard.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

The legendary Siena Pianoforte is said to have been praised by musicians such as Liszt and Saint-Saëns. It's surrounded by an aura of mystery due to its astonishing history.

Its soundboard was supposedly made of wooden pillars from the ancient Temple of Solomon in Israel. Stolen by German soldiers during World War II, it was discovered half buried in the sands of the African desert.

The instrument was saved from destruction in the nick of time and restored by an Israeli craftsman; subsequently it aroused enormous media attention before being largely forgotten.

The History Blog » Blog Archive » New chapter in the story of the Immortal Piano


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)




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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Dont know if this meets the threshold of unusual, but the lautenwerck is a cool instrument that Bach used to create the pieces commonly described as lute suites


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

The "Katzenklavier" reminds me of "The Mouse Organ."


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