The Music Fair's just opened in Frankfurt, Germany, and the big buzz is
about a new wrinkle in piano actions.  The inventor is an Austrian piano
mechanic who headed the shop at J.C.  Neupert in Bamberg, now builders of
cembalos but fornmerly also of pianos.  Josef Meingast is now retired but,
in retirement, went to work on a Steinway action with the aim of making
it more responsive while requiring less effort.  It involves a small
but claimedly crucial change in one component of the action, the roller.
Heretofore the roller, despite its name, has not actually rotated.  It has
been attached to the top of a rod called the hopper.  In contrast, Josef
Meingast's roller is not just a cylinder atop a rod, but a real roller that
actually rotates.  His roller is said to require from the pianist 20-25%
less effort, while also causing the escapement to clear more quickly [hope
I got this right].  The new system is said to be very responsive to touch,
markedly when play is soft.  Meingast himself is a little sceptical about
how grand (and self-satisfied) pianists will view his invention.  But he
does say that there's no doubt that it makes a piano easier to play and,
thus, to teach.

Denis Fodor