Signature of Greatness

Signature of Greatness
World’s Great Pianists Attest Brilliance of Volodyia, Shepherd School’s Concert
Grand Piano
BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff
March 19, 1998

When you hear Dean Shank talk about Volodyia’s colorful personality and brilliance,
you might think he’s referring to a beloved member of his own family.

Volodyia is, in fact, a renowned Steinway concert grand piano which Shank,
an artist teacher of piano, piano pedogogy and piano technology, considers to
be an extraordinary musical instrument.

Some of the world’s greatest pianists would agree. When master pianists are
taken with a piano after playing it, they may sign their name on its cast iron
plate. Among the legends whose autographs appear on Volodyia are Vladimir Horowitz,
Arthur Rubin-stein and Van Cliburn.

"Volodyia" is a Russian nickname for Vladimir, as in Horowitz. Shank
finds it fitting that the piano would be named after the master pianist because
it reminds him of Horowitz’s sonority, in that it’s "very brilliant and
powerful with a very large dynamic range."

Shank admires the piano’s remarkable combination of tonal qualities–an enormous
dynamic range and a tone that lasts a very long time. "It can be very beautiful
and softly lyrical while playing slow movements of romantic piano sonatas and
Chopin nocturnes, and then it can turn around and play a concerto and absolutely
soar above the biggest symphony orchestra," says Shank. "I’ve never
seen another Steinway concert grand that could be so successful in such a wide
variety of musical styles and acoustical environments."

What causes a Steinway such as Volodyia to stand out above other Steinways?
It can partly be attributed to the grain of a piano’s spruce sound board, says
Shank, who believes that there are other indefinable, somewhat mysterious factors
as well.

To Shank, all pianos are "living things, made of living materials. They
certainly have a personality. Steinways are as individual as little children."

"I think one of the most important skills of a top flight technician is
learning the basic musical personality and dynamic potential of each instrument
and working within those bounds."

The dynamic and charming Volodyia can boast of 19 signatures in all, including
noted pianists Eugene Istomin, Alicia de Larrocha and Menachim Pressler, as
well as four members of the Steinway family.

The Shepherd School hopes to add another signature to the plate in March 1999,
when pianist Andre Watts gives a benefit performance on Volodyia with the Shepherd
School Symphony Orchestra.

The late Adele Marcus, a renowned teacher at the Juilliard School of Music,
signed her name and also left a message in reference to a Russian composer:
"Scriabin discovered! Thank you. Aug. 3, 1983."

Unfortunately, the one signature whose date and place cannot be documented
is that of Vladimir Horowitz, who was a good friend of a previous owner of the
piano, the late Grayson Nichols.

Volodyia left Long Island’s Steinway factory on Dec. 10, 1965, and was shipped
to a Washington, D.C. military installation recording studio. It was soon returned
to Steinway’s D.C. dealer. Ironically, the military found the piano to be unsatisfactory.

Volodyia was then bought by Nichols, who Shank describes as "a very successful
and charismatic" Steinway salesman. It was during Nichols’ ownership that
the piano was played and autographed by some of the world’s most renowned artists.

The Shepherd School obtained Volodyia in ’87. Shank and Artist Teacher of Piano
John Perry discovered it while on an East Coast piano search on behalf of the
Shepherd School. It was purchased from Faust Pianos, an Irvington, N.Y., piano
brokerage company. Funding for the piano was provided by a generous gift from
Walter G. Hall, a Shepherd Society board member, in response to a plea from
Dean Michael Hammond that the school not miss the opportunity to add the magnificent
instrument to its collection.

Volodyia can be heard on May 20 when the Houston Symphony Chamber Players perform
in Stude Concert Hall at 8 p.m. Maestro Christoph Eschenbach will play piano.

The Shepherd School has two other concert Steinways that are also held in high
regard: "Fritz" is a piano manufactured at the Hamburg branch of Steinway
and named after the late and renowned conductor Fritz Reiner.

"Fritz" is characterized by rich, dark sounds "somewhat reminiscent
of many of Reiner’s Chicago Symphony recordings. Fritz’s sounds are magic in
the Duncan Recital Hall," Shank says. Robert Glazebrook, who was then director
of Steinway Hall in London, assisted in the selection and preparation of this
instrument in 1984.

The piano known as "Fred" is named in honor of Fred Forshey, who
had just been appointed Houston’s Steinway dealer when the school obtained the
piano. Manufactured in New York in ’87, the instrument "is sometimes chosen
for virtuoso solo literature but lacks the Hamburg’s richness in more delicate
pieces," Shank believes.

All three instruments are frequently sought after for commercial recording
by some of the country’s leading pianists.

Volodyia has undergone some minor restoration since coming to the Shepherd
School, including new strings and new hammers. Shank notes that changing the
hammer heads on a piano is as routine as changing the tires on a car. However,
when it came time for him to replace the hammers on Volodyia, some of his piano
faculty colleagues became nervous. "I was really nervous, too," he
says. "Fortunately, Steinway supplied a truly superior set of new hammer
heads that preserve the magnificent sound."

Shank recalls some words of wisdom he once heard from Glazebrook, who was one
of his mentors: "A successful piano technician must have the nerves of
a high wire artist combined with the patience of a brooding hen."

And when it comes time to work on Volodyia, Shank will most likely have an
ample supply of patience, nerve and anything else he needs.

For related information visit the following Web sites:

Rice University Shepherd School of Music: www.ruf.rice.edu/~musi/

Steinway & Sons: www.steinway.com