This is a Shigeru Kawai SK-7 semi-concert grand piano in a showroom on the 1st floor of the Atria Mall, Worli, Mumbai.
Made of polished ebony, this piano is 7 feet 6 inches long, 5 feet 2 inches wide and weighs 400 kg.
Kawai profess it to be the premier piano made in Japan.
It’s the best grand piano available in Mumbai, and very reasonably priced at Rs. 55.8 lakh.
That amount also happens to be the Mumbai price of a brand new 2015 model Mercedes-Benz E-Class E 350 CDI Avantgarde with a 3 litre diesel engine and automatic transmission.
My first piano teacher, Mr. Benny D’Silva, taught me to sight-read sheet-music and play the piano, back in the second half of 1994.
On a recent visit to the Piano Salon in the mall, Benny decided to just sit down at it and try out the Shigeru Kawai SK-7 semi-concert grand piano.
In this video, Benny opens up with the Beatles’s song “Yesterday”;
then from 00:01:40 onwards, some free improvisation;
and then from 00:02:58, he cruises along playing “Brahm’s Lullaby”.
He says, “Such pianos bring out in you what normally can’t be achieved on regular instruments!”