Boston Pianos

The piano pictured is a GP-193 6'4" grand. This store had a whole line of Boston grands from the GP-163 5'4" grand on up to this one. They ranged in price from less than $23K-$29K. They were all presented in tune and in adequate to excellent preparation. I didn't see or play any Boston uprights.

The first thing I noticed when I played this piano was that it sounded and played similar to Asian pianos I had played recently. Asian pianos usually have a fairly bright distinct sound and a pretty sure feeling to light playing action. But this was a piano designed by Steinway and it was different sounding but not what I expected. It played a little heavier than most Asian pianos, more like a Steinway. A look at its unique plate design showed it to have both a duplex scale and a full capa d'astra along the treble choir. But this was not a Steinway A, the only scale that could be similar to this piano. I tried to imagine that the unique "voice" that most pianos have would emerge in the first year, and this still may be the case, but I was left feeling generally unimpressed by these pianos.

I still feel that my first reaction may not warrant a premature judgement of the quality of these highly advertised pianos. I would certainly like to play one that has been owned for a while to see if it "develops" as all good pianos should, its own distinctive voice.

UPDATE August 12, 2001

Since our last visit, the level of preparation of the Boston pianos at Clark has taken a quantum leap. From good "out of the box" these pianos now seem to be worthy of world class appellation. This applied to both the grands and uprights they had in stock.