Mi-Yeon I, Justin Bird and the Ogen Trio at Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

This year marks the 150th birthday of the Steinway piano and it's not going to pass unnoticed if John Eady has anything to do with it.

Representing the fourth generation of Auckland's Lewis Eady Ltd, he's the man behind tonight's Town Hall concert, in which two talented students, Mi-Yeon I and Justin Bird, play Bach, Mozart, Ravel, Liszt, Schubert and Brahms alongside what should be a blistering performance of Beethoven's Ghost Trio by the Ogen Trio.

There's almost a temple-like atmosphere in Lewis Eady's Great South Rd showroom. A Steinway grand with a price tag of $125,000 has pride of place, as John Eady unfolds some of the mystique behind the name.

Sleek black posters celebrate Steinway artists, a select group which requires that members own a Steinway piano and have an international reputation as a pianist. In New Zealand there are only four: Michael Houstoun, Richard Mapp, Tamas Vesmas and Thomas Hecht.

Overseas the pantheon includes Elton John and Randy Newman alongside Mitsuko Uchida and Martha Argerich, who obligingly come up with the sort of rapturous quotes ad agencies dream of. Rudolf Buchbinder's claim that "a pianist without a Steinway is like a singer without a voice" is pretty indicative.

David Jenkin, who is responsible for commissioning and servicing the Steinway pianos in this country, will be fine-tuning tonight's instrument.

Jenkin trained in Switzerland and at Steinway's Hamburg factory. During the 1980s Steinway started to redress the lack of specialist technicians. "Until then they had produced wonderful pianos and sent them out into the world, where they sometimes languished," Jenkin remembers.

The piano rim of a Steinway is fashioned in one operation, after which the soundboard is inserted. "The renowned acoustician Helmholz helped Steinway with the original plan, making it the first piano to be carefully scientifically designed," says Jenkin.

The technicians have a definite role to play in the development of each instrument. "It can take a year to locate a piano's individual colour. Each has its own characteristic sound. One might be stronger, another more lyrical, yet another more dissonant. My job is to try and find the best quality in each instrument and make that quality come out."

Jenkin is bemused by the endless controversies around the instruments.

Last year a contented Stephen Hough sat down at the Town Hall Steinway and purred "Just super", whereas another visiting pianist, playing the same instrument a few days before, was less enchanted.

Tonight's concert features that Steinway, one of two Jenkin organised last year. While its fellow piano, stationed in the Aotea Centre, was chosen for "sheer raw power, the fattest and gruntiest sound we could get", the Town Hall instrument is a much subtler creature. "In the right hands it will make some lovely sounds and it's much more geared towards chamber music than concerto playing."

This man knows his Steinways and has no shortage of tales to tell. "When Vladimir Ashkenazy was last here he was playing a Mozart concert but, right until the house opened, he was absolutely flying through Rachmaninov variations. It was marvellous but I wanted to say, 'Leave my piano alone. I want it to be perfect for the concert'."

* When: Tonight at 8