A piano with a curved keyboard will take center stage at Carnegie Hall

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll find out more about the unusual-looking piano making its Carnegie Hall debut tonight. We’ll also learn about a poll that went to big spenders as the United States Tennis Association considers whether to build suites costing $175,000 per person at the US Open.

There’s something different about the piano on the Carnegie Hall stage tonight. “It’s like looking at a normal piano through funny mirrors,” said Jonathan Biss, who will play Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto on it.

The piano has a curved keyboard.

But it’s not a giant toy that a clown could punch at the circus. Biss is not a clown. This also applies to the architect Rafael Viñoly, who came up with the idea and worked closely with him Chris Maenethe instrument maker in Belgium who built the piano.

Viñoly, who died in March, was an advanced amateur pianist and wanted an instrument that was more comfortable to play than a conventional instrument. Pianist Pam Goldberg tried it out with Bach and Liszt last week and said, “You feel like you’re enveloped in it.”

Wynona Wang, another pianist who tried the piano, said it was “magically more comfortable.” While playing a Tchaikovsky concerto, without the orchestra, she said the reconfigured piano seemed smaller than a conventional piano. In contrast, Goldberg said that because of the curve, “it feels like there are more keys.”

There are no. The piano has the same 88 notes as any other modern version, from that very low A to that very high C. It also comes with a very high price tag: 465,000 euros, or about $509,000, according to Maene.

The Maene-Viñoly piano, as it is known, began with a dinner conversation between Viñoly and two old friends, the pianist Martha Argerich and the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim. Viñoly had studied piano in his native Uruguay before becoming an architect. He possessed at least eight wings.

“When they were all worried about how challenging the piano could be,” said his son Roman Viñoly, “he came up with the idea that it could be ergonomic. And if that were so, the far reaches of the keyboard – the high and low ends – could be brought closer to the pianist and alleviate the physical contortions required on a regular piano.”

Roman Viñoly said his father said something like, “What if the keyboard was bent?”

Argerich and Barenboim “looked at each other, smiled and said, ‘That would be great,'” Roman Viñoly said. “Their comment was lighthearted, but he took it to heart.”

Rafael Viñoly soon called in Maene, whose workshop is located about 120 kilometers from Brussels, in Ruiselede. What had developed in Viñoly’s mind was “a completely different model from other pianos,” Maene said. “The entire shape of the instrument is the result of the curve.”

That meant changing more than just the keyboard. The action – the complicated mechanism that drives the hammers towards the strings in response to the way the pianist touches the keys – had to be reimagined, to fan out at the angles indicated by the keys.

This also applied to the strings and the soundboard. Roman Viñoly said the soundboard was 30 percent larger than that of a normal concert grand piano.

Maene and his team also had to rework the gloss black border that the Carnegie Hall audience will see from the side, as well as the lid. “We worked for days with different shapes for the lid,” says Henk Swinnen, product manager at the Maene company, “and we made different models of the lid with different angles. We took it on and off until we found the right shape.” The result serves to project the sound of the treble, he said.

The Maene-Viñoly piano was ultimately more than a foot longer than, say, a Steinway concert grand piano: the piano is so large that when it arrived at Carnegie Hall last week, the instrument would not have fit in an elevator, but was placed in an elevator driven. space under the main stage where ladders and electrical equipment are stored. Tonight’s concert is a benefit for the Viñoly Foundation. Roman Viñoly, chairman of the board, said he wanted to support both architects and early childhood education, “to instill a critical understanding of the built environment” that his father had advocated.

The piano is straight-stringed; the bass strings do not cross the treble strings, as on most modern pianos. Maene had built a straight-string instrument for Barenboim; Some pianists claim that the right-string layout makes the sound distinctive from one octave to the next. “The value of modern piano makers is equality,” Biss told me. “One of the things a good Steinway can do is consistency of color from top to bottom.” A right-string piano “gives me a different color palette,” he said.

Biss said he expected to spend time “figuring out how this thing worked.”

But in fact, he said, “it was effortless.” It’s the kind of piano you instinctively want to play.”

Weather

It is a mainly sunny day around thirty degrees. The evening will be mainly clear and windy, with temperatures dropping into the upper twenties.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until December 8 (Immaculate Conception).

The latest New York news

A poll sent to people who watched the US Open from luxury suites tested their willingness to pay for even more expensive options at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

One possibility: so-called bunker suites in the ground adjacent to the main court. Entry could cost as much as $175,000 for one person during the two-week tournament.

My colleague David Waldstein writes that enhancing the already lavish experience of high-paying visitors with even more luxury would widen the divide between the celebrities and hedge fund magnates in luxury suites and the subway fans in the top rows.

Tournament officials say Ashe, which opened in 1997, is showing its age. They hope to renovate the stadium, taking a page from the multibillion-dollar upgrade of Madison Square Garden that was completed in 2013. The bunker suites at The Garden are considered the most exclusive, breathtaking experience.

The poll, an online survey sent to 15,000 people, asked about the luxury options being considered. For example, for access to a proposed Rackets Club, would a fan be more likely to pay $3,700 per person for a one-day session or $93,000 for the entire tournament?

Daniel Zausner, the tennis center’s chief operating officer, said whatever renovation takes place will not impact the more affordable seating at Ashe’s summit.

METROPOLITAN diary

Crying in public

Dear Diary:

Crying in public is one of my favorite experiences in New York. I shed a tear on the subway when I hear a certain song or read a sentence from a book that moves me.

I’ve cried on the steps of Union Square Station about boys and jobs. It’s so cathartic. As I cry, life continues around me, reminding me that my tears are small and temporary.

One time I ran into my ex-boyfriend, exactly three months after we broke up. He was coming out of the Beverley Road Q station as I went inside.

We both stood still. I saw his face shrink.

“Can I give you a hug?” he asked.

I nodded.

We held each other and cried for just a minute as people swarmed around us. We said we missed each other.

The woman we bought tamales from looked at us. Maybe she could guess what had happened.

I heard the train below us and we parted ways.

“Have a nice day, honey,” he said.

That old term of endearment rang in my ears as I stood weeping on the platform.