Few things inspire repetition more than success: half a dozen years after the multi-year celebration of the tricentennial of the piano’s invention, there were spin-off exhibitions, festivals, and concerts. One close to home took place at a major arts center, causing our Cristofori piano to make another cross-country flight for presentation at the beginning of a yearlong series (all the way to “Boogie-Woogie and Beyond”). The center’s magazine offered a 4-page article with good photos about our early piano research and reproductions.
Much of 2008 was devoted to making publicly presentable one of the Pleyel harpsichords owned by Wanda Landowska. She died in 1959, but her partner Denise Restout survived another 45 years, leaving her belongings still in their house in Lakeville, CT. Their first choice for disposition of the Landowska collection was the Library of Congress, but everything had to go together to the same place. So her library, recordings, writings, etc. interested the Library, but they came with everything from concert dresses to musical instruments.
We were asked to examine the instruments at the house in 2004 and make recommendations. In addition to the Pleyel on which she made so many famous recordings, the house held personal details like photos of “Wanda” cooking tacked up next to the kitchen stove. Ultimately the Library did accept this legacy, and eventually came to us for restorative work on two Pleyel harpsichords and a Challis clavichord.
Made in the 1920s specifically for Landowska, the Pleyels were part of an early phase in the harpsichord “revival” in the early 20th century. They are a nightmare of complication with no historical basis, and would never have made it through our front door had they not been hers. The first harpsichord was finished just in time for use in a centennial celebration of Elliott Carter hosted by the Library, which holds an extensive part of his ouevre.
The end of the year was also marked by the death of Bill Dowd, age 86. It was 20 years since he came into our shop in 1988, expanding our lives in so many ways.
