Arranging the sound design for a grand piano is much more art than science. But there is also some science. A grand piano is a polyphonic percussion instrument. As such, it 'plays' the strings, and the soundboard, and the case and the lid, and the room it is in. There's an old saying among concert pianists that '
the worst seat in the house is the piano bench.' It's undisputed.
The arrival of high-resolution, high dynamic range recording devices has been a wonder to piano recordings. No more wow and flutter on sustained tones, no more clipped, compressed, or distorted peaks on
fff passages. No more need to 'ride the gain' when a piano can attain dynamic ranges of 90 dB (and old analog recordings were lucky to attain 60 dB). I tend to recommend some recent DG, Chesky, and EMI piano recordings (and others) as state-of-the-art examples. Do they sound like a concert artist playing a Steinway D in your listening room? Of course not. They sound like a concert artist playing a SteinwayD
in a concert hall or studio, being evoked in your listening room.
Being a pianist myself, and a former studio tech, recording piano sound has always been a strong interest. In the last 20 or so years, recording pianos has come a very long way. However, it is still more of an art than a science.
Rather like Monet is to evoking Water Lilies.
It is beautiful, but it's not a living water lily in your living room.