Arts unravelled: How does a concert pianist choose which piano to play?

Did you know that pianists performing here at the Southbank Centre are given a number of different pianos to choose from?

In this video we sit in with acclaimed pianist Alice Sara Ott as she selects her preferred piano for a concert in our Royal Festival Hall. Each performer’s preferences are different, but as Ott explains, she herself tends to look for a piano that better conveys its softest register.

See the pianist work with Peter Salisbury, the senior concert piano technician for our Royal Festival Hall, as she carefully chooses her instrument, demonstrating as she does so, the differences in depth and breadth of sound that the piano can deliver.

Ott also describes the important role the musician has in conveying the challenges of a conductor’s work to the audience, and explains how her taste in piano in many ways reflects her taste in wine.

‘I would probably describe my taste in pianos as quite similar to my taste in wine. I like when something has a complex aftertaste, a taste that develops after the first second. And that’s what I also love about pianos.’

Alice Sara Ott