Jenny Lin | WDAV: Of Note

The Ultimate Player Piano?

What would you pay to invite Elizabeth Joy Roe and Greg Anderson into your living room for a private performance? What would you give to have Jenny Lin providing the music at your next dinner party?

Priceless experiences, to be sure. But perhaps not…

This week, Steinway introduced Spirio, which it hailed as its biggest innovation in its product line in over 70 years. It is a player piano system that reproduces the work of Steinway artists to its most accurate level yet: it has been hailed by artists for accurately replicating the smallest nuances of performance, for bringing a live concert into your home… even while no one sits on the bench.

Jenny Lin, renowned pianist and Steinway artist, hailed the piano in a Steinway video for being “able to literally duplicate not just the notes and the music that’s being played, but really the emotional reaction of the player.”

The piano looks no differently than other Steinway pianos: the Spirio components are not visible, nor do they affect the touch or the sound of the instrument.

But the piano delivers much more than meets the eye. The piano comes with a catalog of performances from over 1,700 Steinway artists who have recorded pieces ranging from classical to jazz, as well as an iPad that controls the Spirio via an app. The catalog will be updated automatically as new performances are recorded.

But, alas, even priceless experiences often come with a hefty price tag. The starting price for bringing these performances into your home? $110,000.

Must-Have New Release: Night Stories – Nocturnes, Jenny Lin

When I was a child, my mother read to me sweet bedtime stories, and I did the same when my two daughters were little. But, as a parent I had something my mother did not, and that was a portable CD player in my children’s rooms so I could play them nighttime classical music to help ease them to sleep.

Over the years there have been many musical albums designed to bring both children and adults peaceful sounds into the evening hours. I remember turning the lights down so that the moonlight would shine through the window, with music playing to enhance the beauty of the moonlight. Pianist Jenny Lin’s new album of nighttime piano music is entitled, “Night Stories – Nocturnes,” and proves to be the perfect gentle evening companion for both the young and not so young.

Jenny Lin is an outstanding artist comfortable with many genres, most notably from the Romantic, Impressionism and mid 20th century Modernism, all represented here. Beginning with Claude Debussy’s iconic “Clair de Lune,” the tone is immediately set for a splendid hour of musical nocturnal delights from the likes of Schumann, Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, Faure, Chopin, Grieg, Turina, Griffes, Paderewski, Glinka and Liszt. Many of the selections may not seem familiar, but their gentle beauty will definitely warm your senses and inspire your imagination as you spend the evening gently easing away the tensions of the day gone by. Whether or not the music elicits memories of childhood storytelling, this program is a perfect coda to a peaceful evening spent with Jenny Lin’s Night Stories.

Ted Weiner is a WDAV veteran. This San Francisco Bay Area native became WDAV’s Music Director in 1991 and has been maintaining the WDAV recording library and choosing much of the music we hear ever since. Night owls and early birds can hear Ted Weiner on WDAV from midnight until 5 each morning on WDAV’s Early Shift on 89.9fm or online.