A nearly century old piano is having its swan song this week on a bluff overlooking Half Moon Bay.  A local artist has been holding nightly, open-air concerts since the beginning of the month.

Argentina-born Mauro Ffortissimo is known for taking apart pianos and reconstructing them into unusual sculptures.  He acquired a 1917 baby grand in late January but wasn't sure what to do with it.

"When I took it to my shop and I had so many pianos," he says.   "I put it up to one wall without the legs and I just [thought]  it's too many pianos, I don't need it.  Let's just take it by the beach. And I was just waiting for a dark night to do it.

Since that foggy February 1st, Ffortissimo has played a sunset concert featuring the music of Schumann, Debussy and Chopin.  The idea, he says was to see how the elements would affect the sound of the already decrepit piano.  

The experiment was cut short when a city code enforcement official paid him a visit to tell him he was encroaching on public land without a permit.  But the city gave him a brief grace period to continue the concerts.  After that Ffortissimo intends to burn the piano on private land as a final farewell.

"You know the bottom line it's about the impermanence of all things," he says.  "Things are always changing.   And it's good to basically be a bit loose about things."

The last sunset concert is Thursday night.