A Bechstein returns to the Wigmore Hall

Donald Wright says:

That information about Bolet’s choice of piano was very interesting to me because in 1989 I bought a full-size Bechstein (in California), a large part of the reason being that I loved the sound of the Bechstein on Bolet’s recordings. The piano I bought had been built in 1986 and shipped to the U.S. in 1988. After I’d bought the piano, I wrote a letter to Bechstein to find out whatever they could tell me about its provenance. I received a reply later in 1989 from Karl Schulze, then manager and one of the co-owners of Bechstein, who said that the piano had been rented out for 7 recitals in 1986 and used in December 1986 in London for a recording by Jorge Bolet. He mentioned that each time after the piano was rented out, it returned to Berlin for a general check.

I’ve never learned which recording of Bolet’s was made in December 1986, if indeed any was; it appears from the list of Bolet’s activities in his last years (as detailed in the article linked above) that there was no recording made by him in December 1986. Perhaps Schulze was mistaken about my instrument.

I’d love to know whether there’s any record of the serial number of the “only one [Bechstein] then in London”; I wonder whether there’s anyone who would know at this late date. I’d love to compare it with the serial number of my instrument. (I don’t imagine there would be a match if indeed mine was built in 1986; several of Bolet’s recordings predate 1986.) But something is amiss, because if my instrument was indeed in London in December 1986, and not used by Bolet, then there was more than one new concert Bechstein in London at the time, contrary to what the article above stated.