IT TOOK eight highly-skilled men to manoeuvre Waterford Music Club's new Steinway concert grand piano up three flights of stairs to its elegant home in the restored I 8th century Large Room of City Hall last year.
On Sunday, the magnificent ebony-cased instrument (which to the pianist is the equivalent of a Stradivarius to the violinist) will have a player of fitting calibre to evoke its full potential.
The 55-year-old club is excited by the prospect of the celebrity concert by world-famous pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.
The Russian-born pianist, who is equally renowned as a conductor, lives in Switzerland and has been the chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin since 1989.
Waterford Music Club is justifiably ultra-careful about the use of its prized Steinway, which is professionally tuned before every concert. The club was formed during the war years by a small group including a coterie of highly accomplished musicians living in the city.
Its first piano was a small Bluthner Grand, bought from Piggot and Co at the reduced cost of £220.
By the 1950s, in spite of overhauls, the condition of this instrument had deteriorated and after an extensive search, a reconditioned Steinway Concert Grand was bought in England for £1,100.
It gave long and sterling service, and was twice overhauled, but age caught up with it. "It was restored, and nursed like a child, but eventually we had to do something," says committee member, Mr Jim Walsh.
The club made the major decision to invest in a new Steinway, now valued at almost £60,000. The delivery and installation in the City Hall was "a petrifying operation", but it should serve the club well into the next century.
The old Steinway also found a good home. It is understood that it was bought privately for a stately home in Dublin.
The club has managed to secure a "once-off" visit by Ashkenazy because of its long-established reputation on the professional music circuit. In its early years, transport difficulties of wartime restricted its choice of artists, but almost all the well-known Irish performers of the time visited it.
Later, international names began to appear on its programmes and the number and scope of special concerts was expanded. The club, which receives a small subvention from the Arts Council and also from Waterford Corporation, has also given priority to promoting an interest in and love of music among the youth of the community.
The development of the Music Department in Waterford Institute of Technology fitted in well with this policy, and the club has always had reduced rates for student membership. Students from the WIT Music Department have regularly presented end-of-term concerts before an audience at the club, which used the Garter Lane arts centre as a venue while the City Hail room was being restored.
Most tickets for the Ashkenazy concert have already been sold and inquiries for remaining bookings can be made to the Garter Lane centre at O51-855038.