Perri Knize

I wrote a longer review of this book on Amazon when it first came out. It was one of the first books that I read on the Kindle, and just like they say the media disappeared beneath the fascinating adventure. Perri Knize, who is a writer as well and a wannabee pianist, drives her book in a conventional way: create a new problem and solve it. That is not a criticism for the adventure is captivating and edifying. While I am passionate about music, I am not a musician. Lacking the background of others who own and play a piano, i learned more than I expected about pianos.
The other facet to the adventure is all the caring and skilled people that you meet. Unlike the assembly line factory which produces our cars and computers, in a craft such as building and maintaining a piano there is a very human face.
Based on my experience, perhaps this is a better book for non-pianists who don't have such close familiarity with the instrument. We, the novice, don't have to judge her observations by our expectations. That's just a thought.… (más)

Perri Knize's memoir is the story of her somewhat obsessive search for "her" piano. It starts with a quest for an "inexpensive upright" and quickly morphs into a journey through piano store after piano store, playing hundreds of pianos, uprights being discarded in favor of grands, budget escalating month after month. She finally finds the perfect piano, has it shipped from New York to her home in Montana, and find that the sound she loved has gone. What follows are literally years of attempts to get that sound back into the instrument. These attempts draw in an astonishing circle of people who love pianos. We meet the technician who put the original sound on her piano and can recreate it, but only for a 24 hour period, and the man who sold her the piano who then gives away his profits on the deal by flying people and parts out to Montana because he cannot bear the thought of her losing that perfect experience she once had. We follow her to Austria, where she meets the men who cut the trees for the soundboard, and to Germany, where she meets the individual craftsmen who built her piano, in her attempt to understand what made the particular sound she is seeking.

Of course, you cannot help but realize that the story of the piano is only the surface. The subtext is a story about the pursuit of a passion in life, the quest to understand and achieve something that completely fulfills you.

This book absolutely resonated with me. I'm an adult beginner on the piano, chockablock with all the "I'm too old to do this" that one might expect. I could feel her utter frustration and despair in this quest, and her utter elation when she moved forward and, somehow, it lifted me up and made me want to push harder.

If you love the piano, read this. If you love odysseys about inspiration and passion, read this. If you simply are interested in well-written memoirs, read this. If you don't fall into one of those categories, it's still a good book and I recommend you at least take a look. In summary, a strong recommendation.… (más)

A cool book, very interesting, about one woman’s quest to find the perfect piano. She starts out with a $3k budget and ends up spending ten times that much, only to have her dream come apart when her new piano arrives and it just doesn’t sound the same as it did in the showroom. She continues her quest, now to get it tuned and voiced. Three years later she is finally “satisfied”.

Sounds obsessive, and a little crazy, but it’s actually a very enjoyable read, especially for any piano lover.… (más)