Mazurken und Nocturnes - Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) - Zvi Meniker

Zvi Meniker
Harpsichordist, organist and pianist Zvi Meniker was born in Moscow and grew up in Israel. He began studying music when he was just 15 years of age. Meniker was awarded diplomas with distinction at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Zurich Academy of Music, where he studied under Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Johann Sonnleitner, before moving on to the USA to study under Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University.
Repeatedly acclaimed for his versatility, Zvi Meniker has a broad repertoire on his three instruments ranging from late medieval works to 20th century compositions. His virtuous, lively and passionate style has frequently been praised in press articles and reviews in the capitals of Europe, the USA and Israel, and he was won numerous awards at international competitions.
Zvi Meniker taught harpsichord and performance practice at Duke University, USA, and has been a lecturer at the Jerusalem Academy of Music for many years. Since October 1995, he has also been an artistic assistant at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. He is currently writing a doctoral thesis for Cornell University on the performance practice of Frédéric Chopin's piano works.

Leipzig piano-maker Johann Nepomuk Tröndlin
Chopin's compositions on this CD are played on a grand piano built by the Leipzig piano-maker Johann Nepomuk Tröndlin. Tröndlin was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1790 and began his apprenticeship in southern Germany. In order to avoid military service, he fled to Vienna where he worked as a carpenter and journeyman piano-maker under various master craftsmen, probably including Matthäus Andreas Stein. In 1821 Tröndlin was appointed head of the instrument-making department of Breitkopf & Härtel, a publishing house and piano manufacturer based in Leipzig. Three years later he set up his own business.
Tröndlin had a medium-sized workshop and employed several journeymen. Every month he produced two instruments. Those of his pianos which have been preserved bear witness to a very exacting master piano-maker who was loath to change a proven model. His instruments were prized by Felix Mendelssohn and also by Robert and Clara Schumann, who numbered among Tröndlin's frequent visitors.
The form and construction of this particular Tröndlin grand recall the instruments built by Matthäus Andreas Stein. It bears the production number 284 and must therefore have been built around 1828/29, albeit in a somewhat 'old-fashioned' style. The instrument once belonged to Dr Johann Pauls von Falkenstein, chief administrative officer and government commissioner in Leipzig from 1834 to 1845, in whose house Mendelssohn often played.
Although built in Leipzig, the grand piano corresponds to the Viennese ideal - a design which was highly praised in most European countries, and no more so than in the hereditary states of the Habsburg empire, namely Bohemia, Poland, Russia and Turkey, where it served as a model for many piano-makers. One of the peculiarities of the Viennese instruments built in the second quarter of the 19th century can also be found in this grand: a sound modifier in the form of a soundboard placed over the strings. This invention acted as a kind of overtone filter and rounded off the bright timbre highly praised by many musicians as "typically Viennese". The heavier stringing (with the treble notes triple-strung) also ensured that "tones were not as shrill on the ear", to quote Stephan von Keess.
The instrument has plain strings made of brass in the bass and iron strings in the treble. The strings are struck by hammers covered with several layers of leather known as the "Viennese action". This flat overdamping action differs considerably from the system of damping customarily used nowadays - not only in its design but also by the way in which the individual notes are formed and completed. The grand has three pedals: 'forte' (lifting the damper plate), 'piano' (a strip of leather is pushed between hammer and string) and 'una corda' (the keyboard is shifted). The strings are generally borne by a wooden framework. The rounded design of the cheek piece and the pin block as well as the curved legs are a distinct hallmark of the Biedermeier period.
Until 1860 Tröndlin's instruments were also played in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, where they were much appreciated for their harmonious, mellow sound.

E. Fontana