Steinway plans return to midtown New York
mainThe piano firm are reported to be negotiating a 15-year lease for 40,000 square feet at West 43rd Street/6th Avenue.
57th Street, it ain’t. And never will be. Gone are those days.
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I do miss the days of the Basement (yes – with a capital B).
Buying our Steinway on 57th Street was a wonderful experience. We ended up with a piano that I found in their basement (after 3 previous trips didn’t yield the right one). Steinway Hall was such a special place. This won’t be the same, but a new location in New York still is preferable to none.
….” (after 3 previous trips didn’t yield the right one)…”
Can you rachet-up the pretentiousness a little bit more, please? I’m sure the pianos on those other trips were just so awful. You poor thing.
Not pretentious at all. Pianos are – at least for most of us – very personal things. They either respond the way you’d like or they don’t. And, like in relationships, small differences can add up to an awful lot that you don’t like after a short while. If you’re going to shell out the kind of money Steinway now asks for its instruments, you have every right to want a piano that is “just right” for you, rather just generically ok. What’s right for one person may not be for someone else. I’ve played more than a few pianos that another (very good) pianist thought were great and that I wouldn’t pay money for. And, I know the kind of action that responds to me the best is not for most people.
No need to be snooty.
Dan P.
Ironic in a way since the 6th Ave. building once housed major RCA/BMG studios, built to record orchestra and chorus a la RCA Italiana studios in Rome in studio A, plus smaller rooms for pop/rock/ jazz dates. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) took over RCA’s space but is now also gone.
The loss of the RCA Studios was a real blow to musicians in New York.
No, 57th Street it ain’t. But 57th Street ain’t 57th Street anymore, either.
If Steinway decided that the cost of real estate at that address was no longer worth paying, I’m not going to second-guess them.