My Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand Piano
Thanks Busoni, you're my man!

LilyLady, here is my piano!

The Bösendorfer Model 290 grand piano entered production status around 1900 and remains distinguished as the first and the premier concert grand to have nine sub-bass notes ranging down to bottom C at 16 Hz - a full eight octave compass keyboard. These extra notes keys are topped in black to distinguish them to the performer. The first conceptual Imperial model piano was built in 1892 following a suggestion by composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni that a Bösendorfer piano be made to simulate Bach's thirty-two foot organ composition, Passacaglia in C minor.

This expanded range allows faithful performances of a number of compositions by Bartók, Debussy, Ravel and, not least of all, Busoni.

(wiki)

On the Imperial Grand, this characteristic tonal quality in part derives from the inclusion of 9 additional bass notes below bottom A. These extra 9 keys were originally added so that pianists could play Busoni's transcriptions of J.S. Bach's organ works that required the 32' bass pipes (usually played on the pedal organ).[6] As very little other music makes direct use of the extra strings, they usually contribute to the piano's sonic character not through being played directly but by resonating when other strings in the piano are struck, contributing additional body to the tone. Moreover, the bass notes of the Bösendorfer, including the extra bass keys, are very powerful, adding volume in demanding literature.

http://www.company7.com/bosendorfer/specs.html

That's me here!

OK! Lilylady, are we on the way here?!

Buckets full of fun

Lilylady, we are a little closer, but it appears men are very shy...

TWO men, two pianos, and a lot of laughs — that’s what audiences can expect when they head to the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre to watch A Handful of Keys.

The show was first conceived by Ian von Memerty and Bryan Schimmel in 1994 — and for the next three years the two men performed more than 300 times to over 100 000 people, winning nine awards for best musical production and best perormance along the way.

OMG Brian...

What a gorgeous piano?

But which one is you?

And where is its local?

Do you find all those extra notes confusing? I think I might as I aim for the low A.

Did you ever see the pics of Elena and her partner on the piano?

I'll see if I can locate it from their website Duo Scarbo.

Duo Scarbo from their website

Looks almost like one piano...

sigh.. I wish I had a half-decent room like this to put my piano!

Mr Faber's Amazing Talking Head
In December 1845, Joseph Faber exhibited his "Wonderful Talking Machine" at the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia. This machine, as recently described by writer David Lindsay, consisted of a bizarre-looking talking head that spoke in a "weird, ghostly monotone" as Faber manipulated it with foot pedals and a keyboard.
Instead of a hoax, which he had suspected, Henry found a "wonderful invention" with a variety of potential applications. "I have seen the speaking figure of Mr. Wheatstone of London," Henry wrote in a letter to a former student, "but it cannot be compared with this which instead of uttering a few words is capable of speaking whole sentences composed of any words what ever."

Henry observed that sixteen levers or keys "like those of a piano" projected sixteen elementary sounds by which "every word in all European languages can be distinctly produced." A seventeenth key opened and closed the equivalent of the glottis, an aperture between the vocal cords. "The plan of the machine is the same as that of the human organs of speech, the several parts being worked by strings and levers instead of tendons and muscles."

Mr Faber's Amazing Talking Head
Henry, who in 1831 had invented a demonstration telegraph while pursuing his electromagnetic investigations, believed that many applications of Faber's machine "could be immagined [sic]" in connection with the telegraph. "The keys could be worked by means of electro-magnetic magnets and with a little contrivance not difficult to execute words might be spoken at one end of the telegraphic line which have their origin at the other." A devout Presbyterian, Henry immediately seized upon the possibility of having a sermon delivered over the wires to several churches simultaneously.

Mr Faber's Amazing Talking Head

Joseph Faber's "Euphonia", as shown in London in 1846.
The machine produced not only ordinary and whispered speech, but it also sang the anthem "God Save the Queen".

...Faber, who had destroyed an earlier version of his talking machine out of frustration over an unappreciative public, apparently felt encouraged by the response of Henry and Patterson to his new machine. In 1846, he accompanied P. T. Barnum to London, where the "Euphonia," as it was now called, was put on display at London's Egyptian Hall. The exhibit drew an endorsement from the Duke of Wellington and remained a part of Barnum's repertoire for the next several decades. The financial returns for Faber, however, were meager. He would die in the 1860s without achieving the fame or fortune he sought.

Packing Crate for Bösendorfer Model 290 Imperial Concert Grand Piano
Ten employees pose at the factory within the shipping crate of an Imperial Model 290 piano.

Glen Gould and Pet Dog
The precocious intellect and adult pursuits of prodigies frequently subject them to loneliness and isolation, and to these conditions Glenn Gould was no stranger. "By the time I was six," he once confessed with his customary sparkle of irony, "I made an important discovery, that I get along much better with animals than humans."

Ferruccio Busoni (1866 – 1924)
Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.

Also the man who suggested to the Bösendorfer company that they make a piano with 97 keys, a full 8 octaves, down to bottom C (C0). They took up his advice and the Imperial Bösendorfer became, and still is their flagship model. Sometimes called the Rolls Royce of pianos...

He was a child prodigy and if my memory serves me correctly, wrote a piano concerto when he was around 12 years old.

OK, who spilt some piano on the carpet?