Fact is, the piano is a stringed instrument.

The most exciting piano lesson I had was my first meeting with Hans Neumann who, having played trios professionally with his brothers Frederick and Karl, had an intimate awareness of string intonation deeper than which it would be difficult to imagine. The lesson included a demonstration of how overtones belie standard theoretical analysis.

So that's what the problem is! That's why it can take so long to process individual sounds on the piano. That's what gets in the way of predictable progression from one beat to the next. Such variability! Nowhere to be found on the printed page.

Now the question arises: how to get that level of complexity to work compatibly with violins and cellos? If it were truly impossible, as some people maintain, then why did such great musical minds as Schumann and Brahms devote so much time and trouble to making it within human grasp, if only...