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Notes from the Berkshires, Day 20

Lenox coffee, 7.11 a.m.

Today is set to be a half day, with tomorrow off, and I’m definitely ready for some time away from pianos. Yesterday at 5.30 I was finishing up the top octave of unisons on the new L in the main Manor house room, after already having gone through a pitch-raise, and I just hit the wall. Ears simply wouldn’t hear anymore. I’m beginning to see that endurance is a big part of the Tanglewood piano technician experience.

We received our schedule ‘bibles’ yesterday. These are books which contain every scheduled rehearsal and concert for the next four weeks, broken down by discipline (vocal, instrumental, composition, conducting) and room. We use this to schedule our time on the pianos, making sure that anything which is really critical (a coaching on a piano trio with Emmanuel Ax, for example, one of my assignments for the coming week) is in really top-notch shape. It gives a very clear picture of the kind of plate-spinning we’re each going to be attempting over the next weeks.

This morning I have a couple of repair/regulation/voicing issues on pianos in Manor house to address, followed by spot-checks on the pianos in the Rehearsal stage. We’re meeting as a group to wrap up the week at noon, and then it is time for a break. At some point today I pass the one-fourth point of my time here at Tanglewood. Amazing.