Howard Jones – Steinway, London: ‘Live’ Review

Peter Freeth

6 months ago

At the Steinway showroom in a very nice area of London, Howard Jones performed an intimate show for a handful of hushed, reverent, grateful guests. Sitting only a metre or so from the piano, every subtle key press could be seen clearly, every chord and layered harmony witnessed and every shift from major to minor and back again viewed in all of its deconstructed glory. The twist? Howard Jones was sitting 1000km away from the piano.

Almost Like Being There

This was a demonstration of the Steinway Spirio, a system which encodes the input to a piano and then reproduces it on another, anywhere in the world via the magic of the internet. Steinway say that the input sensors are undetectable by the player and can encode even the most complex melody or lightness of touch. According to Steinway, “Spirio enables you to enjoy performances by great pianists – played with such nuance, power and passion that it is utterly indistinguishable from a live performance.“

Howard Jones was at Steinway in Hamburg, the audience were in London along with audiences at many other locations around the world. Sharing an experience like this was certainly interesting, unique and yet also a little strange as the other audiences were not visible. There was none of the shared ‘buzz’ that you get in a concert hall. A live video feed from Hamburg was synchronised with the piano and it was almost like being there. Almost.

Old Favourites and New Compositions

After an introduction from Steinway, Howard Jones took his place at the piano in Hamburg and opened with a gorgeously stripped down version of his 1983 debut hit New Song. Back then, the synth sound was novel and exciting and, as a result, Jones dominated the charts for the next 3 years. Something changed after 1986, though, with no subsequent singles reaching even half way up the top 100. Some would say that Jones has become something of a musician’s musician, substituting innovation and inspiration for the fickle nature of popular chart success. It’s that maturity which makes him the perfect partner for Steinway, combining the heritage of the craftsmanship with an innovation which opens up new possibilities for the instrument.

In a show lasting just an hour, Jones played a selection of old favourites reworked for piano and new compositions from an album released in May 2025. According to Cherry Red Records, “This Steinway Spirio piano allowed Howard to add octaves or multiple octaves and create pieces that you couldn’t actually physically play unless you had five or six hands! The result was a kind of evolution of the original Ivory pieces which Howard has called ‘Piano Composed Spirio’.“

Wifi Versus Hifi

About half way through, the inevitable flaw in the system was revealed when the wifi in the Steinway showroom took a tea break. Not to worry; after the staff had stared hopefully at the iPad for a few minutes, it was back, just in time for No-one Is To Blame, a beautiful song as first recorded, only improved through the passage of time and the rearrangement for piano.

What are the other downsides of the system? Obviously, delay. Aside from the connection delay which anyone who has endured a meeting via Zoom or Teams will appreciate, the system has a deep buffer to maintain the integrity of the musical timing. This results in a 10 second delay which makes no difference at all for a solo performance but means that you won’t be hearing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto any time soon. Not live, anyway, but recorded?

Virtuoso in your Drawing Room

The Spirio system not only transmits live, it also records the player’s input. Conceivably, you could download a performance by your favourite virtuoso and play it back on a piano in your drawing room, just as they had played it. Close your eyes and they would be there with you. Why wouldn’t you just pop it on your CD player? The Steinway artisans would tell you that no hifi system would truly reproduce the sound of a real live Steinway grand piano.

The Spirio system is even being used to deliver remote music lessons. As musicians embrace the technology, they are finding more applications for it. It really is more than just a fancy circus-sideshow player piano after all.

Overall, the event was a perfect demonstration of the craft of songwriting combined with of the craft of piano making. Let’s hope it’s the beginning of many more.