Continuing in the same extended topic vein (on a now bit-bucket post):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14jPvnWhdNM

NPR's 'Been there. Done that.'

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18666248

Loosely segue related:

Glenn Gould had his famous Steinway CD318 highly modified but he wanted a change that wasn't possible. He wanted to be able to effect vibrato by rocking the keys while pressed.

With our modern world of electro-mechanics, why not have a piano with variable sized keyboards so that people with hands smaller than Rachmaninoff's might more easily be able to play?

Why not have piano vibrato?

Programmed (computer coded virtuosity): This is probably possible already, given the recreations of past performances through analysis of older technology recordings, but why not have people program a piano to play like virtuosi? Sure, people want the show, but as Gould demonstrated, novel interpretations don't have to be seen to be appreciated. Why does someone have to have one in a hundred million physical talent to produce creative interpretations?

Maybe in the future the creation of virtual singing voices will expand the range of vocal interpretations?

I heard somewhere (don't remember where) that Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which begins with a clarinet glissando, wasn't written by Gershwin but an original orchestral arranger who knew a clarinet player who had a signature glissando, which was rarely done then. The result was the famous start of the rhapsody.

Checking..

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The opening clarinet glissando came into being during rehearsal when; "...as a joke on Gershwin, [Ross] Gorman (Whiteman's virtuoso clarinettist) played the opening measure with a noticeable glissando, adding what he considered a humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favourably to Gorman’s whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way at the concert and to add as much of a 'wail' as possible."
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Schwartz, Charles, (1979). - Gershwin: His Life and Music. - New York, New York: Da Capo Press. - pp.81-83. - ISBN 978-0-306-80096-2. (via Wikipedia)