# 'It's kaputt.' Movers accidentally drop (Canadian) virtuoso's one-of-a-kind $194,000 piano



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Angela Hewitt's rare Fazioli piano dropped by movers - CNN


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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

Noooooooooo. That's the first thing that came out of my mouth when I saw the title. What a shame.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

They should have had at least two movers. That one poor dude never had a chance. Her first clue that something might be wrong was when he got out the hand truck from his Mini Cooper.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

That is a loss.


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## CathodeRay (Jan 12, 2018)

"I hope my piano will be happy in piano heaven."


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

It is CNN reporting. Maybe it's fake news?


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Can’t imagine this. Fuck it’s awful.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

I moved a piano today. I can relate.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

laristotle said:


> It is CNN reporting. Maybe it's fake news?



That’s Fox News I think.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

A piano worth nearly $200k?

Maybe you shouldn’t be moving such an instrument just to record?


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

It does sound really nice in the recordings.


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## losch79 (Jul 11, 2016)

Ohh man that is brutal. At the music school I went to in the late '80's and '90s we would have our recitals, and our exams in the main hall. It had an absolutely amazing and just beautiful Bosendorfer Imperial Concert Grand; even as a young kid/teenager you could tell the quality of the instrument just from the sound and they way it played. For my pocketbook I'm glad I moved over to guitar!!


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> A piano worth nearly $200k?
> 
> Maybe you shouldn’t be moving such an instrument just to record?


Why not? People buy 500k cars to drive.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> Why not? People buy 500k cars to drive.


Cars are made to drive.

Pianos are not made to be moved. That's why we have digital.


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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

Milkman said:


> A piano worth nearly $200k?
> 
> Maybe you shouldn’t be moving such an instrument just to record?


Huh? This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. We're talking about the voice of a Virtuoso here. What else is she going to record with?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> Cars are made to drive.
> 
> Pianos are not made to be moved. That's why we have digital.


Pianos are made to be played. They arent built and then stay where they were made, shipping happens no matter what.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Dorian2 said:


> Huh? This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. We're talking about the voice of a Virtuoso here. What else is she going to record with?


record it where it lives.

why move a priceless instrument?


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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

Milkman said:


> record it where it lives.
> 
> why move a priceless instrument?


I wouldn't know the details. Maybe she couldn't record it where she lives.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> record it where it lives.
> 
> why move a priceless instrument?


But it can be moved, which is how it got there in the first place. That's my point. The article also states it is the first issue in 34(?) years of moving pianos.

It also wasnt priceless, as we know.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Milkman said:


> record it where it lives.
> 
> why move a priceless instrument?


Sound quality?
I'd imagine that the recorded dynamics would be different in a recording studio compared to her living room, or wherever she had it set up at home.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> But it can be moved, which is how it got there in the first place. That's my point. The article also states it is the first issue in 34(?) years of moving pianos.
> 
> It also wasnt priceless, as we know.


Not priceless?

LMAO, yeah lots of us have $200K instruments lying around.

Personally I'd wager once it's recorded, almost NOBODY would be able to tell whether it was a $200K piano or a $10K Piano.

I wouldn't move such an instrument around any more than I would risk dragging the Mona Lisa around.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Milkman said:


> record it where it lives.
> 
> why move a priceless instrument?


It isn’t priceless. It’s worth $194,000. I’m sure it was privately insured. I’m also sure the movers were insured. She’ll be fine. There are one of a kind, amazing sounding pianos made by skilled craftsmen on a regular basis.


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## CathodeRay (Jan 12, 2018)

I gotta say I find some of the comments a bit astonishing... I mean, if you owned -one- custom guitar that was perfectly inspiring in every way - the weight, the resonance, the pickups, the neck, the fretboard, even your personal history with it and the way it let you interpret the music you love to play, wouldn't that be more than just an insured loss? 
And wouldn't you take it to every gig and recording session? 
See Trey Anastasio, etc.
And yup, multi million dollar concert hall acoustics generally sound better than a living room; this is an acoustic instrument; you can leave the Nord at home though. 

Sent from my A3_Pro using Tapatalk


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

CathodeRay said:


> I gotta say I find some of the comments a bit astonishing... I mean, if you owned -one- custom guitar that was perfectly inspiring in every way - the weight, the resonance, the pickups, the neck, the fretboard, even your personal history with it and the way it let you interpret the music you love to play, wouldn't that be more than just an insured loss?
> And wouldn't you take it to every gig and recording session?
> See Trey Anastasio, etc.
> And yup, multi million dollar concert hall acoustics generally sound better than a living room; this is an acoustic instrument; you can leave the Nord at home though.
> ...


 Nah, sorry. How much difference would there be (other than about $190,000 less )if they used any decent quality grand piano?

Would I take a guitar worth $XXXXX to every gig and recording session?

Not a chance.

But opinions vary, particularly when you're spending someone ELSE's $200K.

People are quite brave.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Clearly she had the money for it in the first place.

You know as well as the rest of us that a one-off usually means its higher spec than off the rack


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I'm chuckling watching this thread. Go do something productive lol.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

keto said:


> I'm chuckling watching this thread. Go do something productive lol.



Multi-tasking


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

she rolled the dice and lost ( one miss out of 999 moves ain't bad )
she knew the risks of every move , but she took it ... 
no use crying over it , commission another custom one and wait for the delivery .


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

There's violin bows worth that much. The kind of money moving in and out when some orchestras play would make your head spin.
As was said, she moves it around all the time. The moving company said they'd never dropped one in 35yrs. Just a freak accident, nobody is going to stop moving expensive stuff because of this.


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## Cardamonfrost (Dec 12, 2018)

CathodeRay said:


> I gotta say I find some of the comments a bit astonishing... I mean, if you owned -one- custom guitar that was perfectly inspiring in every way - the weight, the resonance, the pickups, the neck, the fretboard, even your personal history with it and the way it let you interpret the music you love to play, wouldn't that be more than just an insured loss?
> And wouldn't you take it to every gig and recording session?
> See Trey Anastasio, etc.
> And yup, multi million dollar concert hall acoustics generally sound better than a living room; this is an acoustic instrument; you can leave the Nord at home though.
> ...


Hell yeah. If I am Trey, I am using my #1 every. single. day. No exceptions. I find it super amusing that he was made/given another Languedoc (the Ocedoc) and even though it was (debatably) nicer, he continues to play Koa 2.

Musicians use what works for them. Could be physical, could be mental, either way, that woman is mourning the loss of her piano, even if it is replaceable, and was insured for double or 10x the value.

C


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Cardamonfrost said:


> ...that woman is mourning the loss of her piano


This is my take.

A friend that I went to school with in England (1970's) had a part time job working for an agency that shipped Elton' John's pianos all over the globe for his tours.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

greco said:


> This is my take.
> 
> A friend that I went to school with in England (1970's) had a part time job working for an agency that shipped Elton' John's pianos all over the globe for his tours.


I’ll wager Elton has a few pianos that never see the road.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

This thread is LOL-worthy.

We should try and convince Brian May never to take Red Special on the road. Or Keef to never take Macauber out. Reality is, any old $200 guitar and a $150 MFX pedal will sound the same. Haven't we all been schooled by now? Haven't we seen the light?


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Milkman said:


> That’s Fox News I think.


Actually, it's both of them. 

If you think any news outlet is without bias, you are only hurting yourself. It is natural, of course, to not see the bias when it aligns with your own.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

High/Deaf said:


> This thread is LOL-worthy.
> 
> We should try and convince Brian May never to take Red Special on the road. Or Keef to never take Macauber out. Reality is, any old $200 guitar and a $150 MFX pedal will sound the same. Haven't we all been schooled by now? Haven't we seen the light?



Well, see it however you choose.

Personally I'm just pointing out that some things are best kept protected.

"Reality is, any old $200 guitar and a $150 MFX pedal will sound the same."

Yes, that is true.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Milkman said:


> Cars are made to drive.
> 
> Pianos are not made to be moved. That's why we have digital.


The family piano was moved by rail to Oak Lake around 1890. Since then it's move back and forth across western Canada and is now at my younger brother's place. It has even been moved by Bobcat a few times and is no worse for wear. As far as moving things, they move houses so pianos should be easy. Didn't they move Glenn Gould's and Oscar Peterson's piano's all around the world?


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Just supposin'...Well, accidents happen, but precautions were likely overlooked and/or someone was working under pressure. Regardless, I think I'd have my best piano in a home practice/recording studio and another for touring. But maybe there's a financial tipping point. I take my best guitars out and don't have alternates, or a choice.

(Aside: On a lesser level, years ago I had to move an upright piano on and off a school stage many times. When I learned that the previous method was to get all the male teachers to lift the thing and that it was often set down hard (which was pretty rough on the tuning), I devised a ramp, a come-along/block & tackle, proper casters, told off the administration and cleared the room. One man job. It's just physics.)


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

From what I understand that's a one of a kind, 4 pedal piano. Not too sure what the 4th pedal does but it's probably noticeable and important to her. Enough that when she performs and records she does it on her piano. If that means shipping it, then it gets shipped.


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