[lit-ideas] Re: Back to Hegel (and further back to Aristotle)


On 27 Nov 2006, Eric Yost wrote:
>>Hmm, if you're looking for the model control freak - who could beat him [Freud]? 

... Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli ... <names of 'also-ran's omitted>
While we're on the subject of Michelangeli: 10-CD boxed sets of recordings his performances that had been broadcast on Italian television have been showing up in a local 'remainder' store for 9.99 Euros (that's about US$13). The quality of the recordings is 'uneven' (to be polite) but nevertheless ....
I was in the new Bechstein store in Hamburg the other day - there, among others, was a huge poster of Michelangeli (with his testimonial in Bechstein's favour) beaming down on the proceedings. I was unaware of the Bechstein legacy of artists who preferred their pianos (or were they paid large 'royalties'? I now muse suspiciously). Given that Michelangeli believed that he could 'transcendentally' affect the quality of the sound of the notes once he had played them, one wonders on what characteristics such testimonial was based. Perhaps (in M's view) Bechsteins are better receptors for 'transcendental' commands than ********* or ************ ....
Unfortunately the 'climate control' mechanism in the (multi-level inner-city) shopping centre in which the Bechstein store is housed was malfunctioning, resulting in a near-deafening howl that pervaded all floors of the center and intruded even into Bechstein's inner sanctum (along with water dripping into a bucket from a ventilator in the ceiling) - less than ideal conditions under which to sample the wares.
I also didn't take the opportunity to ask why a Bechstein store was also selling Roland and not the superior Kawaii digital pianos. This can all wait until a later visit. (Although I've read that the new MP-8 is an improvement on the MP-9500, I am still sufficiently happy [understatement] with the latter to 'make do' with it for the near future; since the question of whether to purchase a 'real' grand piano next or merely upgrade 'digitally' entails deciding whether to move to a [i.e., first find an affordable] place large enough to provide optimal climatic and acoustic conditions for the former.) 

Chris Bruce
Kiel, Germany
P.S. A Bechstein store in a shopping center? Maybe that was a 'Ginsbergian' howl: 

     When can I go to the supermarket
     and buy what I need
     with my good ...

taste?

CB
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