Dear Mr. Chappell:

I recently witnessed you break a string while performing. What commentary do you have to offer on the resilience of the modern piano as compared with the piano of Beethoven’s or Liszt’s day? I understand that the strings don’t break anywhere near as much as they did back then. Do you believe that had you been a pianist at the time of the earlier piano you would have played with less force to keep the strings intact?

— Audience Member

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Dear Audience Member:

I don’t think it’s something that can be generalized necessarily. Certain individual pianos, some of them even Steinway concert grands, have shown a propensity for having their strings broken. Other pianos seem never to have this problem. But it is not according to brand name, size, or year of construction. It is just some overloaded feature in the mechanism that favors broken strings happening. Once in awhile, a player can use such force that strings can break, but that is rare. More often, the piano wire is worn out.

I suppose I would play an older-style piano differently than I do the modern instrument, not to avoid breaking strings but to take advantage of whatever sound palette was indigenous to it. I play the piano forcefully because that is how I get the sonority that I desire. I would adjust to another instrument according to its sonic properties.

I once broke the D two octaves above middle C during a concert performance of the Brahms Second Concerto, and I was only in the second movement. That was quite an inconvenience. While a student at Curtis Institute, I had a Steinway B in my apartment that had a propensity for breaking bass strings. I used to hang the broken ones on my wall as trophies.

— J.C.