And what a piano it is. Custom made for Mrs. Glessner on behalf of Mr. Glessner as (perhaps) a house-warming gift when they moved to their brand new--and quite avant garde--home at 18th and Prairie designed by H. H. Richardson in 1887, it was built by piano makers Steinway & Sons and furniture maker Francis H. Bacon. It has much inlaid mother-of-pearl--and is only a few inches shorter than a concert grand. The history of the piano is interesting--it was at Harvard University for many years before being returned to its home. You can read all about that here.

Mrs. Glessner was a fine pianist and played the instrument a lot. And so did the Glessner friends--members of the original Chicago Symphony--who were frequent guests at the house for special (and not so special) occasions. The Glessners were instrumental (no pun intended) in forming the historic symphony. And you can read all about that here.

A handful of people who gathered for the Glessner fundraiser Sunday afternoon listened to a four-score concert of Beethoven, Mendelsohn, Brahms--and contemporary composer Sebastion Huydts, Director of Keyboard Studies in the Music Department at Columbia College, who played the piano along with Elizabeth Newkirk, a recent graduate in Piano Performance at the school. The Brahms selection--Hungarian Dances #5-#9--was for four hands--and it was quite a feat to play and a treat to listen to.

I asked Newkirk at a reception afterwards if the sound of such an old piano is better, worse or the same as a brand new piano of similar quality. That was a hard question to answer. While the sound may not be as good or better than a high-quality piano of today, she explained (after all, the Glessner piano is quite old), the warm tones that were present at the beginning of the piano's life--and which can still be counted on to come through--make up for that, she said.