Posted on 05/28/2004 9:12:04 AM PDT by martin_fierro
Power Plant Shut -- to Tune Piano
OSLO (Reuters) - One of the Nordic region's biggest power stations shut Friday to let an expert tune a grand piano for a concert undisturbed by the hum of huge hydroelectric generators.
"When you put a big piano in there, you also need to tune it, and that is very difficult if the machines are running," said Tron Engebrethsen, senior vice president at Norwegian power company Statkraft.
The generators will be switched back on after Friday evening's concert which is being staged in an enormous underground hall at the 1,120-megawatt Sima power plant.
The hall, built in a rock cavern inside a mountain in the scenic Hardanger fjord in western Norway, is renowned for its acoustics.
Engebrethsen said a concert was held at the plant about once a year, but it was the first time they had shut down production to tune a piano.
The program includes music from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and Stravinsky's "Agon."
The generators, which will be down for nine hours, will be switched back on at 2200 local time.
Extremely in-tune PING.
Maybe they don't know the words?
One expensive piano tune-up.
So, did the piano belong to Clinton or Kerry?
What an odd venue for the arts and croissant crowd.
BS!! I've worked in powerplants for thirty years. The piano would have to be on the turbine deck for the sound to affect the piano tuner. (The human, not the metallic tuner.)
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