A recreation of Beethoven's Erard

Fascinating - I wanted to hear it fully at the end [sniff]

The small sample I did hear had a very bright (loads of overtones) and quick decay to the upper notes especially - they seem to get lost quite easily against the more powerful bass notes.

Now, I couldn't tell from the video what material was being glued to the hammer heads, but it's thought that felt was only first used around 1825 - a good 8 years after Beethoven died - before that leather was the material of choice !

Also, as a side, Sébastien Erard didn't develop the 'double escapement' action until 1821, but the 'back-check' was around to stop hammers double/triple bouncing against the strings during loud passages.

Thanks for sharing !

Interesting indeed. I'm sure Erard used the same tools as well when the piano was first built. :-)

Sorry about that - the reference work (The Library of Piano Classics - Copyright 1987 by AMSCO Publications) I used to check this said 1817 - but that would appear to be a typo according to other sources.