Dear Robbie, Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I have the feeling that
nowadays life is more loud.  And loudness often seems to be used as an
argument, in music as well.

I play the flute; the body is made of wood.  It's a rather good
instrument, but not very well suited to be used in bigger halls.  When
orchestras became more powerful, wooden flutes lost their position,
since modern metal flutes have a bigger sound.

Nowadays wooden flutes are becoming more popular again, mainly because of
the tonal qualities.  And modern wooden flutes do produce a bigger sound.
It's quite surprising how much a well-trained flutist is able to make a
wooden flute sound like a metal one.  But -- he has to work a lot harder
for that.

The same happened to the piano, I think.  Boesendorfer, undoubtedly
loosing market-share, was forced to compete with Yamaha, Fazioli,
Steinway.  And unfortunately they decided, I'm afraid, to try to make
instruments that would produce a bigger sound.  And they do sell these
instruments!

So if I'm speaking about a Boesendorfer, I speak of the original model
-- the "singing" model, which great singers prefer as their accompanying
piano when performing songs by Schubert, and which great pianists prefer
when playing Chopin.

Jan Kijlstra