Customer Reviews

Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been involved in the piano business for over 35 years, and I own a popular piano web site. By now I thought I'd pretty much heard and seen it all. But when I got this book I literally couldn't put it down.

We can all be thankful that Perri's background as a reporter, author, and pianist came together when her "obsession" to find the perfect piano with the perfect sound drove her to write this extraordinary book based on her experiences.

Her adventures reach far beyond the scope of the average piano buyer. In fact, she goes places even those of us "in the business" have never been. Luckily for all of us, she takes us along for the ride.

From the Pacific Northwest to Piano Row in New York, from basement workshops to the Alps of Austria, Perri follows wherever her questions lead her. The more riddles she solves, the more new questions pop into her head, and off she goes again to chase down the answers.

Along the way she meets some of the most interesting and talented characters in the piano business. From each of them she gathers a few more pieces of the puzzle she is trying desperately to solve.

What is it that makes her "Marlene" (yes, she named her piano, and no, that isn't as odd as you might think) sound and play the way she does when everything is right? And more importantly, what caused Marlene to lose her voice, and how will she ever get it back?

Perri will stop at nothing to find these answers, and that is part of the charm and fun of this book.

For example, not content with the explanation of where her soundboard came from, or how it was made, Perri travels to Europe, hikes into the very forest where the trees used to build her piano's soundboard were cut, learns about how to select trees for tonewood, and then goes on to watch the craftsmen who actually created the soundboard and built the belly of her piano practice their art.

Even if you have no interest in the piano at all, this book is a good read based on the sheer fun of following Perri on her adventures. And if you do have any interest in the piano (as I suspect you do or you wouldn't have read this far), this book is a must have!

In it you will learn about the emotional effect music has on us all, and the camaraderie musicians of all stripes share. You will also learn more than you could have imagined about what goes into making and caring for a piano, and about the many people behind the scenes that contribute to the finished product.

But most of all, you will learn why music in general, and the piano in particular, captures our hearts and minds and transports us to another place. Thank you, Perri Knize.

- Frank Baxter
Founder/Owner
PianoWorld.com

Perri Knize finds the perfect words to describe her obsession for the sound and beauty of her exquisite piano, a Grotian grand she names Marlene. But more significantly, she explores--in eloquent language that borders on poetic-- her mid-life journey to recapture a lost part of her youth.

"At midlife we're called by the inexplicable. What is it that calls to us?"

Grand Obsession will appeal to pianists and non-musicians alike. It taps into the very human urge so many of us have--the urge to go back, to get it right, to find a way to express ourselves.

Robin Meloy Goldsby is the author of Piano Girl: A Memoir

I am profoundly touched by Perri Knize's beautifully written and intensely personal book that simultaneously functions as a riveting detective story, heroic quest, and treatise on the blessings and curses of having an exquisite artistic sensibility.

"Grand Obsession" resonates personally in a number of ways. I grew up on the family Steinway, studying classical piano through grade school, gravitating into jazz in high school, and going on to have an active recording and international touring career for the past 45 years. So I have been chronically immersed in the vicissitudes of pianos, piano manufacturers, technicians, recording studios, and the demands of touring. I'm always hoping the next venue will have an instrument with the magical combination of sound and feel I seek, but so often have to settle for far less, at times having to perform emergency surgery. The handful of encounters with perfection is unforgettable, and Perri's obsession to recapture the treasured sound of her piano is a state of mind many professional musicians know all too well.

Knize vividly describes other states of mind of the performing musician, including the common experience of "stage fright." As a psychiatrist in private practice and a Clinical Professor at the University of California in San Francisco, I have had a particular interest over the years in working with artists and performers who experience creative blocks. In presentations I have attempted to articulate the journey, obstacles, and nature of the territory of deepest creativity, where boundaries dissolve and there is simply pure artistic expression. I have never seen this merger state more poetically described than in "Grand Obsession." This is a deeply engrossing and affecting book.

Denny Zeitlin ( www.dennyzeitlin.com )

Well, I learned more about what makes pianos wonderful and unique than I ever thought I would know. I also discovered that the perfect piano sound is incredibly illusive. And the writing is really spectacular - lots of turns of phrases that made me stop and admire Ms. Knize's literary skills. The number one thing I discovered, however, is that Perri Knize's husband must be a saint, because she's so obsessed with the perfect sound that it seems like nothing else in her life matters. He should get pages and pages of credit for putting up with it. There should be a suffering husband chapter, in fact.

This is a wonderful read for anyone with an interest in the piano, or in music in general. For others, perhaps not so great.

The author's search is not so much for a particular piano, but for the particular sound of a piano that she heard once in a showroom just before she bought that particular instrument. Lots of great information about the amazing people that are involved in building, selling, and more than anything else, maintaining pianos. Knize's emotions go over the top to the point of irritation at times, and on about page 273 she descends into physics and metaphysics, which I could have done without, particularly since she gets some of the physics wrong, and the mysticism is just sort of silly.

Let me recommend, as other reviewers have done, another book, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. That author is searching for a piano, and the book is, if anything, even better than Grand Obsession.

I wasn't sure I'd like this book - but I really enjoyed the adventure - and an adventure it is. The author is a woman whose father nurtured a love of music - but for much of her life her musical talents lie dormant.

She acted on that - rediscovering something in herself - and then she takes off on the adventure. Along the way, we learn a lot about pianos, about music, people in music and the people who work people in music. We journey from Montana to New York to forests in Europe where the wood for the author's piano was grown.

for me this was a very engaging story. It's well written and moves quickly.

Anyone who read the Piano Shop on the Left Bank would love this book. But for that matter, anyone who likes to just see the world through the eyes of a talented woman in search of herself, will enjoy it as well.

What an awesome book, I read it straight through. I could smell the varnish, feel the hammers, hear the strings being struck. This book is a must for piano lovers and well as those looking for a mentor for life's challenges when seeking the desire of the heart. A particular sound and touch resonates with the soul and cannot be forfeited for anything less. The journey Perri takes is typical of all that is worthwhile in life that requires focus on your inner self and a calling to a higher power. A great source of knowledge about the pragmatic mystique of this wonderful instrument that has no equal, the piano. The book is alive.

or think you could love one, if you appreciate fine craftsmanship, or enjoy cameos of quirky persons and odd places, if you've ever been intrigued by the relationship between a pianist and his instrument this is the book for you. It's lucidly written, packed with arcane information, spiced with wit and suspense. A subtitle might've been "The Hidden Lives of Pianos." Highly recommended for the instrumentalists, technophiles, and people watchers in your life.

I ran across two mentions of this book in one day, and knew I had to read it. I recommend it to certain individuals who are interested in learning all they can about music, sound, instruments, and what moves us.

Being someone who is easily moved to tears myself, I had wondered about the complexity of my experience, who hasn't? Perri Knize wondered and jumped down the rabbit hole, in pursuit of the ultimate answer.

I have to admit to my reactions in the different sections of the book. As a soon-to-be-retired piano dealer, her pursuit of a practice piano rubbed me with the same irritation I get whenever someone comes in dissatisfied with everything on the floor. In the story, it (her dissatisfaction) opens the door to the quest that gets bigger as time unfolds.

As a technician, her kind portrait of piano technicians and their egos helped me see my fellow techs in a new light.

As a musician, reading Grand Obsession brought me back to paying more attention to (piano) tone.

In an age when manufacturing standards are the highest they've ever been, and consumer awareness it's most demanding, it seems to me more people than ever don't know how to listen.

Grand Obsession is not a quick read, it plods in places. I recommend staying with it until the end because ultimately, we learn amazing things about music, musicians, spirituality, instrument makers, quantum physics, and ourselves.

A good piano has its own personality. A great piano has something approaching a soul. To play a piano that you truly connect with - it responds to you, and you respond to it - does not happen every day. When it does happen it is a very precious thing. Perri found such a piano in NY, but that wonderful connection was lost when the piano got to Montana. Was she able to get that sound - that connection - back?

Grand obsession is a great read because 1) it is a great story, and the narrative is interesting, 2) it is very informative in terms of pianos, how they work, and what makes their sound come alive. Perri spent a lot of time researching everything from soundboards to different tunings. Her passion for the piano, and restoring her instrument to the sound she remembers is apparent in every page.

If you like stories about a search for perfection and beauty, with a lot of witty and interesting characters, this is the book for you.