My century-old Mason & Hamlin has just been blessed with a new action. It is a very special moment when ideas confront uncompromised acoustical reality. Many mysteries in Schubert are clarified by this new experience: the fingers and the pedal have no barrier caused by out-of-regulation hammers and squeaky pedal mechanisms.
It provides a powerful lesson about listening: How easily distracted we are by the mechanical limitations of instruments in less than perfect condition. If this happens to me I can imagine what my students go through when they practice at home. (This is perhaps why some of them don't practice.)
