It was a big and beautiful room, with a radio and piano, writing desk, big launching chairs, and things to read.
Bartók, when asked if he composed at the piano or his desk, answered that it was somewhere between the two.
And, as with my walk between the studio and the house, I've experienced numerous little musical epiphanies in this short distance between the piano and the desk.
Another 19th-century space saver is displayed: a piano whose music desk folds up and disappears, allowing the piano to masquerade as an exquisitely carved rosewood cabinet with no telltale keyboard, pedals or strings in sight.
Ms. Romaine directs; Ms. Cooper and Mr. London took care of the lyrics and music; Ms. Romaine and Ms. Cooper play Gluckel simultaneously; Mr. London leads the two-man band that provides an eclectic accompaniment, using medieval shawms, electric organ, toy piano, trumpet, hotel desk bell (ping!) and accordion.
"He worked with equal intensity wherever he was: in the compartment of a train or the cabin of a steamer, in a hospital bed or in a forest clearing, in any mood, even when there was neither a piano nor a desk nearby," says Nestyeva.
In the living room, he has his grand piano and, at his desk, piles of medical journals that he still subscribes to — "for my soul," he said.
No more getting up from the piano or the writing desk to putter around in the kitchen or the storage shed.
Every morning after breakfast, Diana dusts the tasteful furnishings Natalie chose for her future home: a Steinway grand piano, a curved mahogany desk, a low velvet-upholstered couch.
