Yamaha's CFX concert grand piano set to wow Ribble Valley festival

Yamaha are sponsoring the Ribble Valley International Piano Week again this year, and their new CFX concert grand piano is all set to take centre stage.
From July 10-16, a host of international artists will be flexing and testing their skills on the new instrument, playing to a bigger audience than ever before thanks to the new festival’s expansion for 2012.
A new concert piano from Yamaha deserves an appropriately high-end venue and the festival has moved to The Westholme Theatre in Blackburn, doubling the capacity for the various recitals planned over the week.
Whilst the festival will be a relatively fresh outing for the new CFX, the piano acutally made its debut in New York recently at a concert celebrating the creation of the United Nations and the end of World War II 65 years ago.
The piano itself has taken 20 years to design and create, and early players are already raving about its tonality and power.
Marianne Bailey, Ribble Valley’s piano technician, said she has been “itching” to get her hands on the CFX.
“It will be a pleasure to work on one of these instruments as they are capable of such immense subtlety and dynamic range that I know the pianists at Piano Week will be as thrilled by it as I am,” she added.
Musicians including Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Peter Donohoe and founder Martin Roscoe will all be performing on the CFX at the festival this summer.
“To be able to offer our performers one of Yamaha’s new CFX grands is the icing on the cake,” said Roscoe. “I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces in my own recital.”
The festival will feature a two-piano duet performance from Martin Roscoe and Peter Donohoe, while Ian Buckle’s recital is set to be an eclectic affair spanning music from the last 400 years, from Byrd to a new piece by Timothy Jackson based on Lancashire folk tunes.
This year’s festival will feature somethi ng of a focus composer, Claude Debussy and his work—a name still very popular with pianists today.