Visiting two sisters of Tori's best friends at home (Part II)
Appendix
From a letter to Boesendorfer:
Dear Friend: You cannot imagine my great joy to be proud owner of two such lovely instruments as you sent. The new black piano is the most beautiful home instrument I have ever seen, with the lovliest sound imaginable. Many, many thanks. Yours sincerely, Yehudi Menuhin
From: Arthur Rubinstein, "My Young Years", Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London:
During intermission, behind the stage I noticed a very old gentleman in a short fur coat, with a muffler around his neck and his hat on. Slightly bowed, he walked up to me slowly and and introduced himself.
"My name is Ludwig Boesendorfer, I am eighty-six years old, and I do not go out at night any more, but I had to see and hear the young Rubinstein who refused to play my piano while the great Anton Rubinstein preferred my instruments to all the others."
I blushed with shame for having hurt this fine old gentle-man's feelings, especially since it was his piano that had helped me so much to my success. When I tried to explain he interrupted me with a light tap on my shoulder.
"Don't take it to heart so much, young man," he said, "I know very well what was behind it all, and I am glad that you found your way to my pianos. Come to see me tomorrow at noon at the piano store; I have some ideas which might interest you."
Mr. Ludwig Boesendorfer received me in a private office of the large piano store on the Herrengasse.
"Sit down close to me, I don't hear as well as I used to," he said. "You see, the factory does not belong to me any more - I sold it to my friend Hutterstrasser, a younger man and a good businessman. But I still own my concert hall, the Boesendorfer Saal. Can you stay another week in Vienna?"
"Yes, I believe I can," I said.
"Well, then, young man, I intend to introduce you to the Viennese public in a proper way. My hall is taken for the whole season, but I can put off a singer until next autumn and give his date to you for a recital next Friday. I want it to be a special affair; I shall send out my personal invitations to all the people who count in Viennese artist circles and to all the musicians, of course. Do you like the idea?"
I was so moved by the old man's gentle ways that I could only nod in response.
He smiled. "You see, my boy, I do it simply because you made my piano sound so beautiful."
My recital at the Boesendorfer Saal turned out to be a gala. The elite of the city responded en masse to Mr. Boesendorfer's invitation, and many well-known musicians were present. Professor Leschetitsky came with his Polish wife, his fifth; the world famous pianist Moriz Rosenthal, the not-less-famous Emil Sauer, the violinist Arnold Rose of the quartet of his name, Franz Schalk, the main conductor of the Vienna Opera, and the most important critics sat in the front rows. The Polish colony, including two ministers of state, was well represented. Prince Ladislas brought Princess Maria Lubomirska and her daughters, relatives of his.
As one can well imagine, I was terribly nervous facing an audience as intimidating as that. The ideal acoustics of the hall, however, and the really wonderful piano gave me courage. The presence of so many musicians managed to stimulate me.
To sum up: I played quite well, and I was much and heartily applauded; my encoures brought up some shouting - the kind of demonstration that is seldom heard by an invited public. Many people came backstage to compliment me, among them Rosenthal, famous for his wit and malicious tongue. To my surprise, he said nothing but some kind, encouraging words.
I missed the dear, old Mr. Boesendorfer at the concert, but it was too late for him, and he sent me a warm message.
Acknowledgement
When I left the Boesendorfer shop in the Musikverein Building, I thanked the man in the office for his friendly help. He gave me his calling card in case I had further questions. Next time I visit Vienna, I will maybe try to visit the actual piano factory. And hopefully I will be allowed to see the room with the pictures on the wall, you know...
If you have questions about Boesendorfer, if you ever visit Vienna yourself or if you maybe even intend to buy a Boesendorfer, please contact:
Boesendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH
Heinz Kamper
Boesendorferstrasse 12
A-1010 Wien
Austria
Telephone: Austria-0222-5053518
Fax: Austria-0222-5053519
August 7, 1999
This is the first time that the story is available on the net.
Previously, I had posted it in episodes to the Really Deep Thoughts mailing list.
The UK Tori Amos fanzine "Take To The Sky" has published an excerpt in one of their issues.
The fanzine article also has some pictures which I currently unfortunately do not have ready in electronic form.
Some of the information might be a little outdated between now and the time the story has been written.
The last sentence is certainly true for some personal information about myself.
Meanwhile, I live in California and work on the project that is also featured on these pages: mySpeech
Our team has been the first ever to develop speech interfaces for the Internet. Please give it a try at http://www.mySpeech.com.
