Chopin’s last piano gets its 19th-century features back

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The last piano on which Frederic Chopin played and composed is being renovated by a U.S. expert who is giving it back its original mid-19th century characteristics. Paul McNulty is spending days at the Chopin museum in Warsaw filling in some cracks in the soundboard and putting in wire strings like the ones used by the piano’s Paris manufacturer Camille Pleyel in 1848. Texas-born McNulty said Thursday this is the best preserved Pleyel piano in the world. But it had most of its strings changed for modern ones in the 1950s that destroyed its tone and put strain on the structure. McNulty believes the work will bring it as close as possible to the sound that Chopin heard.