José Luiz da Silva, 63, has worked at Sala São Paulo for 23 years and now provides instruments for some of the state’s largest classical music events. More than arranging the threads perfectly, he must adjust expectations and even be a psychologist
Among musicians, the pianist is the one who suffers the most with his instrument. He studies at home on his favorite and beloved piano, but plays in public only on pianos that he is forced to know and “master” a few hours before the recital or concert with an orchestra. The question is so thorny Franz Liszt, in the 1840s, he traveled with his piano. However, there is a character who suffers even more than the pianists. He is undoubtedly the piano tuner. Especially those who work permanently in concert halls. They must respond to the often conflicting requests, or rather orders, of guest pianists.
José Luiz da Silva, 63, was responsible for tuning Osesp’s Steinway concert pianos from 1999, the year the Sala São Paulo opened, until 2022. “That year,” he says in an interview with Estadao, “I also opened the ‘Piano Store'”, where he also rents concert pianos. José Luiz is a renowned figure: his pianos and their tunings have been a fixture of the Campos do Jordão Winter Festivals and of the seasons of the Sociedade de Cultura Artística (from the ancient theater of Rua Nestor Pestana), the Mozarteum and the Sesc theaters scattered throughout the State of Sao Paulo.
In short: his name is synonymous with high-level tuning, serving the biggest stars of international piano. Names such as the Russian Evgeni Kissin, the Hungarian Andras Schiff and two Chinese stars, Yuja Wang and Lang Lang, among hundreds of classical and popular keyboard stars, such as Egberto Gismonti.
These sentences reminded me of the figure of Nelson Freire who, in the Sala São Paulo, looked suspiciously at the glittering Steinway concert in front of him and murmured: “I don’t like this piano” (in Walter Salles’ 2003 anthology documentary). José Luiz recounts an episode he experienced with Nelson: “In every room there is the instrument that is part of the orchestra. In the São Paulo Room, it is Olga Kopylova’s piano. It turns out that Nelson arrived to rehearse, he saw this piano and he played all afternoon. Only at the end did I understand that it wasn’t going to be the piano for the concert. He insisted on playing that instrument,” he says, laughing.
The relationship between pianists and their instruments oscillates between love and hate. One of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Canadian Glenn Gould (1932-1982), played as a child in the 1940s on a Steinway Model D concert cataloged as CD318. He spent decades trying to find it, which didn’t happen until 1960.
“Behind every great pianist there is a great tuner,” writes journalist Katie Hafner in her 2008 book A love story on three legs. It is worth reading and also shows the common sensibility between Gould and the blind tuner Verne Edquist. For the record: a Steinway tuner once put his hand on Gould’s shoulder in the Steinway shop; the pianist sued him and Steinway, claiming he had been assaulted by the professional. Last degree, pathological idiosyncrasy.
The art of tuning
Imagine one of those Formula 1 single-seaters. You have already seen the procession of mechanics “at work” on the entrances of the car, preparing it for the big moment of the start on the track. They use screwdrivers and other tools to place the motor in the exact spot for maximum performance.
The piano tuner in theaters around the world is the technician who “prepares” the car, in this case a concert Steinway Model D, or a Bosendorfer, and in many select spaces also the concert Yamaha.
Armed with a screwdriver, he isolates with a wedge and feels two of the three strings that make up the sound of a central note on the keyboard made up of 88 keys, from lowest to highest. Using the appropriate wrench, tension the tuning until it reaches the contemporary standard of 440 herz. Repeat the operation with the 250 strings of the piano. It’s a beautiful piece of goldsmithery. A small mistake can be fatal. For example, tension beyond the limit and the strings may break during the concert. For this reason they are highly appreciated, especially in the field of concert music.
According to Fritz Dobbert, upright pianos should be tuned once a year, but those in concert halls and grand pianos are tuned several times a week, always on the day of each concert. That’s why they last, on average, five years.
Detail: the other instruments of a symphony orchestra – and there can be more than a hundred – are tuned by the musicians themselves when the oboe emits the note A, so that everyone can agree on that tuning fork. Except for the piano. Piano tuning is so complex and takes so long that professionals like José Luiz da Silva exist.
A la carte tuning
“The biggest problem of the tuner is to respond 100% to the request of each pianist: one wants a piano with a sweeter sound, the other a brighter one”, says José Luiz. “The instrument cannot withstand radical changes from one day to the next. In short: the tuner must be flexible, but in a way that does not compromise the next pianist.”
José Luiz says that at the end of 2022, “the Osesp Foundation launched an offer to fix the Hall in 2023. I lost by a difference of 100 reais, imagine.” Last question, to dispel a “myth”, according to the tuner: “Does the piano get better the more you play it?”
“That’s true, but it suffers over time. A concert piano in the São Paulo Hall, for example, lasts five years. Pianists realize this and don’t want to run the risk of the strings breaking. Another myth: the old piano, from the beginning of the century, in general it is not as wonderful as they say, after all it has aged, it is 100 years old. It is worth remembering that a piano tuned to 440 Hz supports 20 thousand kilos of string compression”.
‘Causos do Zé’ with great pianists from all over the world:
- Evgeni Kissin (52 years old):
“He spent a week rehearsing in the hall, playing on the Steinway. He’s super calm, good people. But the elevator that takes the piano to the stage broke. What to do? The Yamaha was up there. He doesn’t play, said the production team. But there was no other way.”
Recital Sala San Paolo on 14/06/2015 (audio only)
- LangLang (41 years old)
“When he came for the first time (in 2012, at the Sala São Paulo), the Chinese pianist looked like a child, with his mother and his aunt. He didn’t give me a headache. He also performed at the Tomie Ohtake, I rented the Steinway. I confess I was afraid. But he played without trying the instrument first.”
Flash rehearsals at Sala São Paulo in 2012: (0’19)
- Egberto Gismonti (76 years old)
“He was in one of the SESC units. It was winter. He sat down, played a chord and asked for the tuner. He told me: ‘The piano doesn’t play anything’. I said: ‘Play some more.’ ‘I’m not going to play’. I played 15 minutes of pretend play, he had his hands in his pockets, he was getting warm. After 15 minutes, his hands were already warm, he touched it, there was a little something, but It was easy to adjust. In other words, no, I didn’t do anything. There’s a psychological aspect that the tuner needs to pay attention to. It was a Steinway Model B, three-quarter tail.”
“Portrait in black and white”, Egberto Gismonti Sesc 14 Bis 28/10/2023
- Arthur Pizarro (55 years old)
“The Portuguese pianist didn’t like any Steinway in the room. He wanted the piano which is on the second floor of the São Paulo Hall. It’s the choir’s rehearsal room. It was a recital. This demystifies the prejudice against Yamaha a bit.”
Chopin’s “Barcarolle” on a 1911 Bechstein piano
- Yuja Wang (36-year-old Chinese pianist, the biggest piano star today). Recital Sala San Paolo, 2/10/2018
“The first time she came she chose the piano. The second time, in 2018, I asked her if she wanted to choose – in these cases I always prepare two pianos. But she told me: ‘No, whatever you choose is fine’ ‘.”
Yuja Wang, “dressed to kill”, solo concert no. 1 by Liszt at the Royal Albert Hall, at the “PROMS” Festival 2022
Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
