Brand
"We switched to Lavazza."
I already guessed, from the cups and paraphernalia with the particular blue of the brand. My favorite place to drink espresso in New York City has succumbed.
Lavazza is good actually. And it's reassuring to find a shop brewing "Italy's Favorite Coffee" in some unlikely town (Hannover) when you want a shot of the black elixir. But, lots of other coffee tastes are disappearing. The world is being Lavazzafied!
And, I'm a "Steinway Artist" -- one of about 1500, according to the Steinway & Sons company website. That means I endorse the brand, and that I try to perform on Steinway pianos whenever it's possible. It means I can use dedicated Concert and Artist Department Steinway pianos maintained in a lot of big cities. I really like Steinways. I love playing a "special" (as C & A pianos are sometimes called) in London, New York, Los Angeles... Today, many excellent pianos, of somewhat differing characters, are being produced in the company's two factories in New York and in Hamburg.
In the nineteenth century, there were hundreds of piano makers. That's narrowed extremely. Almost every American concert hall has a Steinway. And there's a certain reassuring consistency to it. Here's the reliability of a multinational corporation doing what it can do really well.
What of the many, many piano sounds and feels of the past? Sounds that now can only be imagined, or experienced in museums?
Blogroll
the other piano blog:
Stephen Hough at Telegraph.co.uk
AJ Blogs
AJBlogCentral | rssculture
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
rock culture approximately
Laura Collins-Hughes on arts, culture and coverage
Richard Kessler on arts education
Douglas McLennan's blog
Dalouge Smith advocates for the Arts
Art from the American Outback
For immediate release: the arts are marketable
No genre is the new genre
David Jays on theatre and dance
Paul Levy measures the Angles
Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
John Rockwell on the arts
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude
dance
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...
jazz
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
media
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Martha Bayles on Film...
classical music
Fresh ideas on building arts communities
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Harvey Sachs on music, and various digressions
Bruce Brubaker on all things Piano
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds
publishing
Jerome Weeks on Books
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera
theatre
Wendy Rosenfield: covering drama, onstage and off
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world
visual
Public Art, Public Space
Regina Hackett takes her Art To Go
John Perreault's art diary
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
Tyler Green's modern & contemporary art blog

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