A TRIBUTE TO WALTER HAASS. MASTER PIANO TECHNICIAN

 

A TRIBUTE TO WALTER HAASS 

MASTER PIANO TECHNICIAN 

It is with shock and sadness that we learn of the sudden passing of WALTER HAASS on Sunday (15 December 2024), the Australian-German piano technician whose long and treasured association with the Singapore International Piano Festival (SIPF) and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) can never be over-estimated. 

In 30 years of the hallowed piano festival (1994-2024), there have been four artistic directors, three concert venues, multiple Steinway concert grands, over a hundred pianists, but only one dedicated piano technician. That was Walter Haass, the maestro behind the keys, who made all the pianos sound the way the pianists intended them to, and to our ears what perfect pianos ought to sound like. 

Walter Haass with the four SIPF directors:
Lim Yan (2019-present), Pianomaniac (2004-2008),
Goh Yew Lin (1994-2003, 2009)
& Lionel Choi (2010-2018)

Walter was born in post-War Stuttgart (then West Germany) in 1952, was himself a pianist who received training in Germany and France in the crafting of pianos and the secrets of making the instruments sing. He and his family emigrated to Western Australia in the 1980s, becoming an important personality and permanent fixture in the Australian and Asian piano music scene. 

Walter flanked by Thomas Hecht
and Noriko Ogawa (SIPF 2005)

He was first invited to work on the Steinways at the Singapore International Piano Festival in 1995, the festival’s second edition, after which he never left his station. There was simply no reason to. Other than the pandemic year of 2020 when the festival was suspended, he was the omnipresent uniting figure at every festival. 

Outside of the festival, Walter was invited back to Singapore to work for pianists with special and specific requests in their recitals. I was proud to highlight his sterling work in my Straits Times and Bachtrack reviews of recitals by Arcadi Volodos (2005) and most recently Helene Grimaud in October this year, when he had to condition two Steinways for the same recital. At both these concerts, the pianos had a wonderful resonant sonority which led me to think, “Walter must be back in town!” And that was the last time I saw him, thanking him in person, and taking for granted he would be back here again in 2025. Alas... 

Walter with Koh Jia Hwei,
Lim Yan & Dennis Lee (SIPF 2005).
Who knew Lim Yan would become
festival director some 14 years later? 

Walter was quiet and humble in personality, but fiercely proud of his work. After each recital, he would gently ask me in his deep baritone voice, “Did you like the sound?” How does one answer that question except in the affirmative? The truth was that he varied the voicing of each piano based on each pianist’s preferences, and so every evening, the piano sounded a little different, as different as the pianists themselves. Whether he worked for a big name (Argerich, Demidenko, Anderszewski et al) or a debuting young pianist (in the Young Virtuoso Recital Series), he accorded them the same care and professionalism. Very often, he would offer praise and encouragement to a young talent and share with me his approval. 

Walter meets his "twin",
Hungarian pianist Jeno Jando (SIPF 2008)
Both were born in 1952.

I was introduced to Walter by festival founders Goh Yew Lin and Tisa Ng (then SSO General Manager) in the early years of his tenure, and then it all clicked from there. By the time I was named festival director (for the years 2004-2008), we had become friends. He was a regular at post-recital makan sessions, where he let his hair down and shared all sorts of interesting stories about his profession and life in general. 

Dinner at No Signboard (SIPF 2008),
with Jennifer Micallaf, Glen Inanga, Jeno Jando,
young virtuosos Lee Pei Ming & Albert Lin.

One particular memorable anecdote involved a very famous late Czech pianist who also fancied himself as a piano technician. He would carry his own toolbox and tinker around with the piano pre-concert, much to Walter’s private consternation. One day his toolbox was reported missing, but the concert went on anyway. By all accounts, it was a successful concert, after which Walter emerged from the wings with the very toolbox. Returning it to the owner with a look of relief, he exclaimed “Oh, I’ve found it!” Needless to say, there was a knowing wink when he recounted that story. 

Walter was also a good listener,
as Dennis Lee spins a story
of his own (SIPF 2005)

I also remember Walter for his generosity. Knowing that I was a fellow pianophile, he made copies of Steinway Piano’s annual commemorative CD which he happily presented to me. To a down-and-out piano teacher and former Steinway employee, he readily gave a substantial loan taken from his salaried work in Singapore. True to form, he never asked for the money back (while the teacher made himself scarce). Even after my tenure as festival director, I was a guest of his in Perth, where he and his wife Marie treated my family to a hearty steak dinner. 

Guests of the Haasses,
at Inglewood Hotel, Mount Lawley (2015).

All of us piano-lovers will sorely miss Walter - his professionalism, his friendship, his kindness, and his generosity – and not necessarily in that order. His kind will never come again.