Sunday 30 April 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last Thursday was a festive day for all things piano at the University of Music and Opera, M\u00e4lardalen University<\/a>. For the first time in many years, the piano class had a whole day of visiting Lajos Toro’s piano workshop<\/a> and showroom in Bors\u00f6kna, just outside of Eskilstuna. Of course, I knew what was coming because we had been to Lajos several times before the pandemic, but most of the students were unprepared for the incredible range of piano instruments available. Instead of their expected 10 instruments, there were greeted by no less than 250(!) grands and upright.. What is fantastic about Lajo’s business is that he focuses on refurbishing historic Swedish instruments that otherwise risk ending up, believe it or not, on the scrap heap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the day, we first got to go loose on the instruments and try all of them as we wanted. Sound chaos guaranteed. It’s not often you get the chance to play on so many different brands at the same time, of course classics like Steinway, B\u00f6sendorfer and Bl\u00fcthner were available, but also incredibly fine instruments that Lajos is a specialist in, for example, excellent German Steingraber and our Swedish pride Malmsj\u00f6, a personal favorite! Later in the day, we got to take part in ongoing intonation work on one of the Steinway grand pianos belonging to the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, both via a lecture by piano technician Kenneth and a test performance where the students got to feel the instrument feels in the process of being correctly intonated. Lajos then told us more about how the mechanisms of a grand piano work, and we also got a historical tour of the history of keyboardinstruments and finally a bundle of very valuable maintenance advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last part of the visit was devoted to about three hours of performing our current repertoire, both from the students and myself. So much fun to hear all of our works performed on all different instruments, and we all got a reminder that, although a pianist should be able to handle all kinds of instruments, every piano has its own unique characteristics and color possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many thanks from all of us to Lajos for the invitation and the very generous reception, we will definitely come back in the near future!<\/p>\n\n\n\n S\u00f6ndag 30 april 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n K\u00e4rt \u00e5terbes\u00f6k till Eskilstunas pianoparadis och Lajos Toro Toroton AB<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I torsdags var det en festlig dag f\u00f6r allt vad piano heter vid Musik- och operah\u00f6gskolan, M\u00e4lardalens universitet<\/a>. F\u00f6r f\u00f6rsta g\u00e5ngen p\u00e5 m\u00e5nga \u00e5r \u00e5kte pianoklassen tillsammans till Lajos Toros pianoverkstad<\/a> och showroom i Bors\u00f6kna precis utanf\u00f6r Eskilstuna. Jag visste s\u00e5klart vad som komma skulle eftersom vi varit hos Lajos flera g\u00e5nger innan pandemin, de flesta studenterna var d\u00e4remot of\u00f6rberedda p\u00e5 det otroliga utbud av klaverinstrument som finns hos Lajos. Ist\u00e4llet f\u00f6r de f\u00f6rv\u00e4ntade kanske 10 instrumenten fanns inte mindre \u00e4n 250(!). Det som \u00e4r fantastiskt med Lajos verksamhet \u00e4r att han fokuserar p\u00e5 att renovera historiska svenska instrument som annars riskerar att hamna, tro det eller ej, p\u00e5 tippen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under dagen fick vi f\u00f6rst g\u00e5 loss p\u00e5 instrumenten och provspela som vi ville. Det \u00e4r inte ofta man f\u00e5r chansen att spela p\u00e5 s\u00e5 m\u00e5nga olika m\u00e4rken vid samma tillf\u00e4lle, s\u00e5klart klassiker som Steinway, B\u00f6sendorfer, Bl\u00fcthner, men ocks\u00e5 otroligt fina instrument som Lajos \u00e4r specialist p\u00e5 till exempel utm\u00e4rkta tyska Steingraber och v\u00e5r svenska stolthet Malmsj\u00f6, en personlig favorit! Senare under dagen fick vi ta del av ett p\u00e5g\u00e5ende intoneringsarbete p\u00e5 en av Steinwayflyglarna tillh\u00f6randes Kungliga Musikh\u00f6gskolan i Stockholm, b\u00e5de via en f\u00f6rel\u00e4sning av pianotekniker Kenneth samt en provspelning d\u00e4r studenterna fick k\u00e4nna p\u00e5 hur instrumentet k\u00e4nns n\u00e4r har grovintonerade hammare. Lajos ber\u00e4ttade sedan mer om hur mekaniken i en flygel fungerar, och vi fick ocks\u00e5 en historisk genomvandring av klaverinstrumentets historia och till sist en bunt mycket v\u00e4rdefulla sk\u00f6tselr\u00e5d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sista delen av bes\u00f6ket \u00e4gnades \u00e5t ca tre timmars uppspel av aktuell repertoar, b\u00e5de fr\u00e5n studenterna och mig sj\u00e4lv. S\u00e5 roligt att f\u00e5 h\u00f6ra v\u00e5r samlade repertoar p\u00e5 alla olika instrument, och vi fick alla en p\u00e5minnelse om att \u00e4ven om en pianist ska kunna hantera alla instrument s\u00e5 har varje instrument sina egna unika egenskaper och klangliga m\u00f6jligheter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stort tack fr\u00e5n oss alla till Lajos f\u00f6r inbjudan och det mycket gener\u00f6sa mottagandet, vi kommer absolut tillbaka inom en snar framtid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n