I just ordered a copy of the American first edition listed below from ABE. If anyone else is interested there are a few more copies available in the $30-40 range. It sounds too wacky to pass up, embroidery and all. AA Thornton Hagert wrote: > The American edition of the book is as follows = > THE IMMORTAL PIANO BY AVNER AND HANNAH CARMI > New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. 286 pp. @ 1960 by Avner and > Hannah Carmi. LoC Cat Card # : 59-14034. > The subtitle "The True Story of a Quest" appears only on the cover, > inside and out. > Crown's address was then 419 Park Avenue South, New York 16, N. Y. > There are many in-text photos, especially of the case carvings. > The book's prologue states that the Piano was used at a 1951 > concert at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Felix, Ahad Haam St., Tel-Aviv, > played by Prod. Lazare Levy, for the Society 0f Friends of the Siena > Pianoforte. The concert was to be recorded. > A performance had also been broadcast for the benefit of Israeli > hospital. > The book may be seen at Vernacular Music Research, Philadelphia PA. > Thornton Hagert > > On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:29 PM, Ernst Lumpe wrote: > >> Years ago I assembled what appeared to me the complete series of >> Counterpoint/Esoteric Lps featuring the Siena Pianoforte. There were six >> albums: >> >> Esoteric ESP-3000, 1955 >> Charles Rosen plays 6 Sonatas by Scarlatti and Mozart's Sonata K. 333 >> >> Esoteric ESP-3001, 1956 >> Anatole Kitain plays works by Bach in arrangements of Busoni, Hess >> and Petri >> >> Esoteric ESP-3002, 1956 >> Marisa Regules plays works by Alb�niz, Mompou, Turina and Villa-Lobos >> >> Esoteric ESP-3003, 1956 >> Marisa Regules plays works by Debussy >> >> Esoteric ESP-3004, 1956 >> Kathryn Deguire plays works by Mozart >> >> Esoteric ESP-3005, 1956 >> Grace Castagnetta "Christmas on the Siena pianoforte" (well-known >> xmas songs >> and hymns in her own improvisations). >> >> That Mr. Drori mentions Glenn Gould as one of the pianists who >> recorded on >> this instrument puzzles me. I have never seen such recordings >> released. Yet, >> that does not mean they don't exist, of course. >> >> I also have the book he mentions, released two times over here in German >> translation under the title "Das unsterbliche Klavier". The first one in >> 1965, Heimeran-Verlag, the second in 1985, Urachhaus-Verlag. The >> original >> American edition is said to have been published in 1960 as "The Immortal >> Piano". A publishing house is not mentioned, only the 1960 copyright by >> Avner and Hannah Carmi. I have kept an article which was published in >> 1996 >> in the German weekly journal Der Spiegel. At that time Carmi was dead >> already and the piano was owned by his daughter Smira Borochowicz >> (68) who >> was about to put it on auction. It seems that someone in Japan had >> shown an >> interest in it, as the article closes with the following lines: "The >> prospect that the holy wood from Solomon's Temple should now pass from >> Jewish into Japanese hands does not bother her: "What matters most is >> that >> it's gone finally!" >> >> Reading the book I cannot help believing it is spinning an >> entertaining yarn >> with a couple of hairraising moments (e. g. Liszt discovering the >> piano in >> Italy and playing on it the first version of his "La campanella"; or >> Rommel's troups in Africa getting hold of it somehow and misusing it >> as a >> "beer organ", only to be followed by the British capturing it after the >> battle of El Alamein, the instrument now being covered with plaster >> which >> made the British believe at first they had gotten some German secret >> weapon; >> Carmi finally found it when >> he rumaged around in a depository of the British mandatory forces >> near Tel >> Aviv in 1947, and more of that kind of revelations). The book's subtitle >> ("The adventurous and honest story of the long-forgotten and resurfaced >> Siena Pianoforte" - my re-translation of the German subtitle) sounds >> more >> like a fairy tale. >> >> EL >> >