Jonathan Crayford Steinway Tour Update

Innovative pianist and composer Jonathan Crayford has been touring New Zealand with a Steinway D piano in tow for the past couple of weeks, from Auckland to Queenstown and Dunedin, now making his way back up to South Island to end the tour in Wellington.

From cement silos, a wine cave, a concert hall and various other interesting spaces, Crayford has been performing anything that may take his fancy, Lorca, Ravel and Monk to Peter Gabriel.

Says Jonathan “There is a huge difference between a full-sized, concert grand in good condition and every other piano,” he explains. “The big ones make a huge sound and the balance of low frequency to high frequency is glorious, the tone, divine. When a pianist performs on an instrument that can deliver such a sound - the instrument inspires greatness, and in turn, the audience feel it.”

The piano is a 1955 full sized Steinway concert grand, signed by several concert pianists throughout its lifetime, including Lily Kraus, “a Hungarian specialist in Beethoven and Mozart who had endured a concentration camp and became a refugee before touring the world in the ‘30s and ‘40s. I believe she was quite a presence in NZ then, a lot of people remember her.”

Below is a snippet from his most recent performance at Hanover Hall in Dunedin.

Tickets and show dates are available from Eventfinda