Even in the 1850's or so pieces were being written for pianos with extended ranges, and Busoni and Dukas certainly didn't think that 85 or 88 notes was the limit. The high notes on pianos don't sound good because the pianos overall are not designed to play the high (or very low) notes properly. The Bosie's low notes are very disappointing. On the Stuart, for which one of the design criteria was to improve on those notes, those notes sound extraordinarily well. Mind you, you have to have the right music. Arvo Part up high is mesmerising on the Stuart.wilkgide wrote:Perhaps people then thought that a larger piano would be too big to reach across and therefore not catch on. I personally think this won't catch on because piano's already don't sound very good at the highest notes and notes are almost not discernible at the lowest notes. The only piece I've ever played that went up to the highest note on the piano is the third movement of Saint Saen's piano concerto No. 5 and it just sounds too high.
Regards
Fred