Mijn piano kraakt.....

Mijn piano kraakt soms in zijn ouderdom
de snaren trillen van genoegen alom
bijna geen dag gaat voorbij
tientallen toetsen staan op eenzelfde rij
de hamers raken de snaren en het geluid ervan remt
van hoog naar laag en hard en zacht tot het wordt getempt
zonder stilte uniek
bestaat er geen muziek.

Op het stemblok van de piano
snaren staan hoog gespannen o zo
en wachten met verborgen toonaarden
de pianist rangschikt deze waarden
keer op keer glijden de vingers over ivoor
wit afgewisseld met een toets zwart ervoor
kruizen en mollen zwijgen op papier
maar krijgen al hun aandacht op het klavier.

Door de loop der jaren
zijn motten en stof gevaren
onderhoud is keer op keer van belang
het beroep op vakmanschap wees maar niet bang
van wel leerden zij zich schikken
met het juiste oor en gereedschap
dat koop je niet in blikken
pak de telefoon en geef zelf de aftrap.

Ja, de piano is opgeknapt en eindelijk weer gestemd
en klinkt bijzonder mooi, niet in cliché uitgedrukt, geremd
mag je zijn, want eerder had veel beter geweest
voor dit overjarige toverbeest
decennia lang al meer dan een eeuw gelee
liep de portemonnee van de 1e koper hiervoor leeg.


Martien Hersman, Haarlem 5 juni 2008

Mijn pianoverhaal

Mijn pianoverhaal is vooral begonnen als een nieuwsgierige zoektocht, het duurde dan ook werkelijk enkele maanden voor ik voor mezelf een beeld over mijn pianoverhaal kon vormen en dat probeer ik hierbij voor de geinteresseerden te verwoorden.

Enkele vragen, waarop ik probeer antwoord te krijgen:
Waar is het vakmanschap uit het verleden gebleven?
Hoe wordt er nu mee omgegaan?
Wat beweegt en wie beheersen de markt van piano- liefhebbers en - bouwers?

Vakmanschap is een duur goed, enerzijds schaars en anderzijds aan hoog arbeidsloon onderhevig. Desalniettemin is historisch vakmanschap gelukkig overgedragen en nooit verloren gegaan. Marktbewegingen hebben de pianobouwers markten zichtbaar verplaatst buiten Europa. Grofweg kun je zeggen, dat de fabrikanten van weleer door toenadering van marktmechanismen wereldwijd naar elkaar zijn toegegroeid.

Concertpodia worden veelal eenzijdig gedomineerd door bepaald vakmanschap en samensmelting van belangen tussen Broadcast Media, Impressariaten, Dirigenten, Artiesten/Solisten.
Sponsoren en de consument samen maken concerten op hoog niveau mogelijk.

Grote merken zijn in groepen te verdelen en toch is waar te nemen dat het aantal merken is uitgedund en of is afgebrokkeld.

Werkgelegenheid in deze bedrijfstak is door centralisatie wereldwijd elders buiten Europa samen gesmolten. Individuele pianobouwers van toen zijn aangewezen op lokale pianohandelaren en restaurateurs van het heden, vraag en aanbod is opnieuw waar te nemen. Muziekstudenten gaan op zoek naar authenciteit en de volwassen amateurs hebben meer tijd en geld dan vroeger.

De bulk voorraden vinden hun weg naar de consument via internet of piano malls op industrieterreinen.

Grote merknamen van weleer zijn nauwelijks meer verbonden aan familiebedrijven.
Gebundelde krachten zijn ver over grenzen verdwenen met als gevolg dat merknamen herleven in de consumentenmarkt.

Dankzij lokale restaurateurs en vakmanschap blijven de grote "A, B en C" merken behouden sinds het ontstaan van de pianoforte voor nieuwe generaties.

Door de merknamen bewust te hebben weggelaten, ontkom je er niet aan enkele merknamen te gaan noemen om inzicht te geven.

Yamaha, Samick, Kawai en Young Chang zijn economisch zo sterk gegroeid dat zij indirect grote merken bedienen zoals Bösendorfer, Baldwin, Bechstein en Steinway.& Sons en bovendien oude handelsnamen weer nieuw leven inblazen.

Er is een groep van onafhankelijke handwerker pianobouwers gebleven, bijvoorbeeld Steingraeber u Sohnen, Grotrian Steinweg, Sauter en Blüthner.

Er zijn ook nieuwe groepen handwerk pianobouwers ontstaan zoals; SHIGERU KAWAI, Borgato, Fazioli en Stuart & Sons.

Vooral merken zoals Pleyel, Erard, C. Bechstein en Blüthner gaan generaties lang mee of blijven behouden dankzij groot individueel vakmanschap.

Steinway & Sons noem ik even apart, deze “Porsche” onder de piano's tref je vooral aan in concertzalen mede door de steun van broadcasting & marketing. Een grote schaar van artiesten is aan dit merk verbonden of indirect gecontracteerd.

Enkele uitzonderingen kwam ik tegen, zoals Jorge Bolet die altijd zijn eigen Bechstein meenam en tegenwoordig Wibi Sjoerjadi de zalen vol krijgt eerst met Bösendorfer en nu met een aangepaste Fazioli.

Score of different piano's

Larking with Piano sound (Jan 2008)
When you vote, we award 6 points for a first choice , 5 points for a second choice etc ................and 1 point for a sixth choice. We then divide the sum of the scores by the number of votes for each piano to arrive at a statistical preference factor.

The rating as of Jan 2008 is as follows:-
( the theoretical possible top score would be 6 and bottom score 1)

Bosendorfer Phoenix.............................................. 4.2
Steingraeber E 272................................................. 4.0
Bosendorfer Imperial............................................... 3.9
Steingraeber Phoenix............................................. 3.7
Steinway D............................................................ 3.3
Steinway Centennial .............................................. 2.3

Before you draw any conclusions please remember this is a comparison of six of the best pianos in the World. ie those rated by the trade as the exclusive and elite classification"Tier One" makes of instrument. All would excel in public recital.

There is one factor that listening does not measure fully and that is the artist/instrument interface. i.e. does the artist feel comfortable and secure? Steingraeber-Phoenix and then Steinway are voted best in this measure when professional artists are asked after playing them live. In simple language they are easier to control. This seems to be related to the nature of the sound from the first impact of the hammer before a defined frequency has established (immediacy) and the length of sustain.


The Bosendorfer Imperial is 35% bigger in sound board area than the other pianos and therefore it has a built in advantage for its bass sound..

We have a few results for Stuart and Sons, but do not include it in the test series because the Makers (rightly) judge that some listeners equipment may not always do the piano justice. Stuart and Sons always ranks in the top three.

A new voice of Wayne Stuart & Sons

The Stuart & Sons piano is in the enviable position of having been developed in the 21st century. The vision of designer Wayne Stuart combined with the entrepreneurial spirit of Robert Albert, the head of J. Albert & Son, one of Australia's oldest and most respected music companies, has generated a substantial evolution in the design of the piano. The result is the culmination of innovation, modern technology and dedicated craftsmanship. An instrument for the musician of today.No other piano in the world plays, sounds or records like the Stuart & Sons piano.

Click onthe "A new voice" for the Stuart&Sons website.

Piano met pedaal ...B O R G A T O ®

Keyboard instruments with pedalboard – a brief history

However unusual or even bizzarre it may seem, the idea of a piano endowed with a pedalboard similar to that of an organ actually has a long history behind it. Its antecedents are the clavichord and the harpsichord with single or double keyboard, which also often had a pedalboard attached. The first citation of a clavichord with pedalboard appeared around 1460 in the section dedicated to musical instruments of the encyclopedic treatise written by the scholar Paulus Paulirinus (1413-1471). It was thus established as an instrument useful for "practice" reasons, in exercises useful for coordinating the hands and feet, that organists could also use if they wished to avoid having to activate the organs' bellows or the rigorous cold of the churches.

Silent Piano of Yamaha 24h7d

Silent piano

A silent piano is an acoustic piano where there is an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar. They are designed for private silent practice.In the silent mode, the key movement is picked up by sensors. In older models mechanical sensors were used which affected the touch and produced a clicking sound, whereas newer models use optical sensors which do not affect the feel or sound of the piano. The key movement sensed is then converted to a midi signal and can be linked to a sound module, allowing the piano to be used as a digital instrument via headphones. The pianos also have full midi capability and can be linked to a computer for use with notation software etc.Silent pianos are available from Yamaha, Bosendorfer, Kemble and Schimmel. Aftermarket systems for all pianos are available from Gabor (One of the first silent systems), PianoDisc and Midi9.

Convert Your Piano with PianoDisc

PianoDisc is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of player piano systems, with a dealer network that literally spans the globe. The company was founded in 1988, and in very short order became one of the most successful, innovative and influential companies in the music products industry.

PianoDisc began in a modest-sized piano retail store in Sacramento, California, which was owned by brothers Gary & Kirk Burgett. In 1979, the two had decided to start a business together that would take advantage of each one’s talents and interests. Gary was a pianist and music teacher with a successful studio of his own, and Kirk was a skilled piano technician and rebuilder. The company they founded was called Burgett Pianos, and through a combination of hard work and marketing savvy they rapidly took annual sales from 50 pianos to over 400.

One important selling tool for the brothers was a product called Pianocorder, a cassette-driven player system that could be added to any piano. The Burgetts let Pianocorder demonstrate their pianos in malls, department stores, model homes and a host of other offsite locations, and it drew fascinated customers—people who didn’t play the piano and never would have thought of buying one—into their store.

Pianocorder sales eventually made up close to 40% of Burgett Pianos’ business, so the brothers were alarmed when, in 1988, Yamaha (the Japanese piano manufacturer), bought the rights to Pianocorder and promptly took it off the market. Yamaha planned to come out with its own player system and wanted to eliminate its competition beforehand.

Since the Burgetts were not Yamaha dealers, they suddenly had no player system to sell and stood to lose 40% of their sales. In the true entrepreneurial spirit, the Burgetts saw this not as a catastrophe but as an opportunity. They knew they were not alone—there were thousands of piano dealers with no product to sell—so they decided to meet the demand by making their own system, which they called PianoDisc. They produced their first system in March of 1989 and over the years many generations of PianoDisc player systems have been introduced, each one expanding the capabilities and features of the last.

To support a product as sophisticated as PianoDisc, a music library was needed that was just as sophisticated, so the company began recording some of the world’s finest pianists. Over the years, more than 4000 songs in every category of music have been recorded for PianoDisc and its library is still growing.

Today, PianoDisc systems are in private homes, hotels, restaurants, music schools, recording studios and a host of other places, bringing the joy of live music to anyone who hears them. The company has over 600 dealers and distributors in 40 countries around the world. Wherever it’s shown everyone agrees: PianoDisc is one of the most exciting music products to come along in decades, and an important component in modern home entertainment.

Aandacht voor uitsluitend vleugel fabrikanten

Estonia Pianos 1893 http://www.estoniapiano.com/
Sehr geehrter ESTONIA Piano-Kunde,

der Klang der ESTONIA-Flügel ist warm, reich, tief und romantisch. Sviatoslav Richter, einer der größten Pianisten des 20. Jahrhunderts, sagte: "Es steckt einfach mehr Musik in diesem Flügel."

We invite you to experience the SHIGERU KAWAI piano...
Shigeru Kawai Piano http://www.shigerukawai.com/Pages/piano_intro.html
...to delight in its resplendent tone, to feel the delicate response
of its touch, and to vividly sense the passion, soul and honor
that have made this work of art the treasure of a lifetime.

The Fazioli Sound
Fazioli, Italiaans http://www.fazioli.com/

The characteristics of the Fazioli Sound can be summarized as follows:
Our ideal of Sound is an objective to which we constantly strive. From the very beginning of our factory until the present time our ideal sound has been our constant motivation: the very best piano in the world.

Stuart & Sons
Stuart & Sons, Australisch http://www.stuartandsons.com/
WAYNE STUART

Wayne Stuart's love of the piano and his interests in technical and mechanical structures, culminated in a clear vision from a young age - to become a piano maker.

Stuart studied piano technology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and undertook postgraduate studies in both Japan and Europe with leading piano manufacturers.

The Art Case Collection 1

Steinway & Sons
For centuries, artisans have decorated musical instruments as a means of expressing their creativity. And Steinway pianos have always provided an inspirational canvas.
Steinway & Sons, long recognized as the maker of the world's finest pianos, began creating art case pianos in 1857. http://www.steinway.de/ Perhaps the most famous Steinway art case grand piano, ornately decorated by the English artist Alma Tadema in the late 1800's, was sold at auction in 1997 for $1,200,000. Another Steinway art case piano, serial number 300,000, currently resides in the East Room of the White House. And Steinway art case piano serial number 100,000, the first White House piano, is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. No less prized are the art case pianos Steinway & Sons has designed for hotels, cruise ships and some of the most distinguished homes in the United States.

Steinway & Sons. Model Hamburg O-180 Grand Piano "Oto no Kawa" By Chiharu Nishizawa.

Today, Steinway & Sons continues the creation of these artistic masterpieces, such as the grand piano that adorns the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. http://www.steinway.com/ If you've dreamed of owning your own personal Steinway art case piano, you can start with your own original ideas, or choose from the renderings of Steinway art case pianos in our historical archive. Our new collection of magnificent art case pianos is also available for your acquisition. Whatever your inspiration, the world's most inspiring art case pianos bear the mark.

The Art Case Collection 2

THE ART CASE COLLECTION of Fazioli

The handcrafted set up of Fazioli building process allows for executing any type of aesthetic custom-ordered variation on the six models of Fazioli series. The Fazioli artisans are able to realize any kind of finishing and variation required by the customer. Owing to the application of traditional methods coupled with cutting edge technology, they guarantee the highest quality even in the most complex design.
Custom made modifications can be applied to three different areas: the shape, the surface, the decoration.
The shape: Modifications on the exterior shape of the instrument, including legs, pedals and desk, can be inspired by different styles: classical, traditional, modern and "avant guarde".
The surfaces: The traditional piano has high-gloss, satin or shiny black polyester finish. It is also possible to request polyester finish in any other color. Surfaces can be paneled with any kind of wood. For each kind of wood, there is a wide choice of possibilities, up to the precious "brier" obtained from the lower portion of the tree. There is a huge choice of brier wood: some extremely rare and extraordinarily expensive. All surfaces can be finished with high-gloss or satin polyester, with other types of transparent varnish in order to see the natural wood. Fazioli also offers traditional French Polishing by hand.
The decoration: One of the main characteristics of Fazioli Art Case piano is represented by inlaid technique applied to various types of wood, mother of pearls, semi-precious stones, metal inlays and previously sculpted decorating elements. It is also possible to prepare neutral surfaces for further coloring or hand painting.

The Art Case Collection 3

This model was built in honour of the exceptional pianist and composer Franz Liszt who was connected with Bösendorfer very tightly. The Bösendorfer grand was the only piano which could stand his powerful play. Due to his unique technique, young Liszt broke down each piano until he met a Bösendorfer grand.