Missouri Classical Music News

It began at a postconcert dinner at the River Club during Michael Stern’s first weekend as the group’s music director. Stern was sitting with mega-pianist Leon Fleisher, soloist for that weekend, and his wife, Katherine Jacobson.

Spotting philanthropist Julia Irene Kauffman, Stern invited her to sit with them. A trained pianist, Kauffman had recently decided to resume piano lessons — with no less than UMKC Conservatory professor Robert Weirich, an old Fleisher buddy.

“We started to have a very interesting conversation about pianos and pianists,” Stern said. “And I said, ‘You know, Julia, the piano is not good enough.’” A world-class orchestra needed a piano to match.

Fleisher, who knows pianos, got into specifics. The Symphony’s current 1987 Steinway was just getting tired. For one thing, piano technician Greg Hulme told me, piano hammers wear out because each visiting artist wants it “voiced” differently, which means altering the felt with tools and chemicals.
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Enter Kalichstein, a brilliant pianist already booked for the Symphony’s season who, as a courtesy to his friend Stern, helped select the piano.

After visiting the Steinway factory in Astoria, N.Y., during which he played seven or eight pianos, he found one that he loved.

“It just ‘sings,’” Kalichstein said. “And the sound lingers, and it’s warm and beautiful. Like all great instruments, it has great uniformity in all its ranges.”

After the piano was delivered to Schmitt Music, it went straight to the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Grant Hall, where it spent nearly three weeks being played by Weirich’s students day and night.