Message: This is the 15th thread of the European Crossword Travel/Geography/Culture game. It is a continuation of this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34585817

Here are the rules of the game (for new comers) [I've just pasted the rules from the start of the previous thread.]:

1) Whoever guesses the word correctly gets to build on THAT word to make the new word. In cases of multiple correct answers, whoever posts first is the winner and gets to choose the next word.

2) Make sure all the words are travel related somehow. Your word could be a person, a place, an event, an object.

3) State what letter you're building on from the previous word.

4) State the position of that letter in your new word.

5) State how many letters in the new word.

6) Give us a good clue!

7) Again, all words should be travel-related.

I'll be giving a clue shortly.

Clue: The very first of these "instruments" (singular, called 10 letters) was supposedly built by (name: 12 letters), the celebrated (instrument: 5 letters, last = "o&quot manufacturer.

Said instruments are now apparently sophisticated enough to reproduce certain historical recordings, though the technology is still in its infancy. A recent example involved a recording by (person: 2 words, 6, 6), celebrated for (composer: 6 letters, 3rd = "o&quot, reproduced down to a wrong note with vastly improved sound.

Topping.

Don't know most of the answers, except one of the insturments is piano, and the composer is Chopin.

Maybe someone else can solve this.

Yes.

Some hints:

The person is a French pianist with a concert hall and a conservatory named after him (as I just found out on Friday). But I did know that he was a renowned Chopin player but technically quite fallible (and have a few of his recordings).

The piano manufacturer is not Steinway, obviously, but I'm looking for another manufacturer that's also famous.

Finally the "instrument" may not be obvious, but try searching for the relevant article in the Times archive and online -- which is where I got all this. The article appeared about two weeks ago. In the paper edition, there's a photo of Vladimir Horowitz at the piano.

clavichord?

Whoops, I see upon a more careful reading, that the instrument is modern, not old.
Scratch the clav.

It'll be difficult for a clavichord to reproduce a historical piano recording, grandmere.

Yep!

Alfred Cortot?

Yes. He founded L'Ecole Normale de Musique (named after him -- and there's Salle Cortot in the conservatoire).

But about the other two? The piano manufacturer starts with a "Bo."

Boesendorfer?

Yes. The instrument is called a disklavier (now it's Yamaha, I think).

Here's the article:

http://www.cp.jku.at/people/widmer/p...wYorkTimes.pdf

It's very interesting. I mean, reproducing a Cortot recording down to a wrong note? But granted, they can't do this yet for a lot of the extant recordings.

Why you don't you or yk take the clue?

Originally named ( 5,2,6), this (7, nationality) painter (3,8) is well known for his frescoes at this convent (3,5) in the city of (8).

At one point in his life he became prior of his convent in (7, town).

Whoops; forgot the letter clue.

The "I" in ChopIn is the second (last) letter of the middle word of his birth name.

I want to scream Fra Angelico, Italian, Florence, etc.

Am I right?

I'm off to Google.

Mais oui; trop facile, tsk, tsk!

Goggle will quickly fill in the missing blanks for you.

You're on again!

birth name: Guido di Pietro
Italian
known as: Fra Angelico
frescoes in: San Marco
in city of: Florence
prior in: Fiesole

Guido di Pietro
San Marco

[I really need to go to Florence again.]

cmt got it too.

cmt, why don't you take the next clue? I was going to give a really easy Italian clue though.

111, why don't you give an easy one, then cmt can get it quickly, and we can move on? Unless you really hurry, I'll be on my way home from work and miss it completely!