Showing posts with label Bechstein Grand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bechstein Grand. Show all posts

Thursday 12 October 2017

The Tuning Snob

If a piano is not in tune, surely it is out of tune! Simply put, it is one or the other!

Imagine if we piano tuners would turn up to work, flick some kind of switch, tinker about for an hour or so, play the 'Tuner's Waltz', have a cup of tea, get paid, smile and... on to the next job!

But alas, a tuner's life is not so black and white, not so easy. Whatever the piano may be: Steinway, Schimmel, Schiedmayer - just a few of those beginning with S - but Bluthner, Bechstein etc. and all the rest. All these good pianos, need regular tuning and maintenance to keep them sounding good.

Videos posted online, recordings heard on the radio, programs on the TV, all demonstrate the vast spectrum of ideas about in-tune-ness. The concept of 'in tune' can range from the boringly bland to the ridiculous clang of a poorly tuned street piano. Some people seem able to tolerate the most terrible twangs and jarring noises, oblivious to the blatant affront to musicality, while being quite serious in their playing.  

Perhaps being a piano tuner, one is unable to appreciate the honest effort of sincere musicians wanting to express their musical abilities. I find it surprising however that there is not a more widespread appreciation of the concept of being 'in tune'. 

Unhappily, 
we tuners are not among the most accommodating of people, often disagreeing about ways of doing things. For some, their own ideas and practices are the right ones - anything different, is simply wrong!

There is no point in being snooty about other ways of getting the job done - it is good that the profession is still alive and well! The truth is we can all improve. I'd be embarrassed to be met with some of my earliest tuning efforts. Thankfully, after so many years, nobody is going to complain now. We can only deal with the pianos we tune today with our very best efforts. Building experience one piano at a time. 

Tuner's Journal
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Wednesday 24 July 2013

Bechstein Pianos - A short History

Carl Bechstein had a firm grasp of piano making while still a young man, he also had an acute understanding of how to use publicity to further his business. His first grand piano was built in 1856 - a piano on which Hans von Bulow gave a concert playing Liszt's piano sonata. This concert earned the Bechstein Piano universal praise, and thus Bechstein became a piano-making force to be reckoned with!

The following year, Hans von Bulow is believed to have written that, "Bechstein is, in my opinion, the foremost maker of grand pianos in Germany, although he has built only three so far..." In 1861, still seeking to further the cause of Bechstein Pianos, he wrote to Klindworth insisting that the Bechstein Piano be properly demonstrated at the upcoming International Exhibition in London.

Sure enough, at the 1862 London Industrial Exhibition, Bechstein was awarded the English Grand Prix. The pianos were described as "distinguished by outstanding freshness and breadth of tone, quality of play and uniformity of the different registers..."
The Bechstein Piano appealed to the musical elite and to numerous Royal Households. In 1881, a Bechstein Piano was sent to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. In 1885 what was to become the largest dealership in Europe was opened in London. During the early years of the 20th century the list of royal clients grew to include the tsars of Russia and the royal families of Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Austria and Denmark.

The annual production from the Bechstein factories grew steadily. In 1900, annual production was about 3,700 pianos. By 1910, this had increased to about 4,600. 

Bechstein Pianos still have the something of their 'freshness and breadth of tone'! The build quality is legendary and even today, many pre 1900 Bechstein Pianos are thought worthy of total rebuilding. The Bechstein Piano deserves its status as one of the foremost Piano Makers of all time.
 

Friday 30 March 2012

Is it Safe?

My old school had a Bechstein Grand in the hall. From time to time, the piano had to be moved from one end of the hall to the other. But there was a slight problem: the piano suffered from a couple of weak legs. A whole class of boys were stationed around the piano, and as a group, lifted it and carefully carried it across the hall. Health & Safety would have something to say about this now, but back in the 'dark ages', nobody bothered about such things!

Although I did not play the piano at the time, I was always fascinated by the piano and loved to look inside at the strings and at the dampers moving up and down as the piano was played. I little knew that one day I'd be sent to work on this very piano!

A few years after leaving the school, and as a newly qualified piano tuner, I was called in to sort out a problem with the piano legs. The school was concerned that from time to time, the piano had to be moved from one end of the hall to the other. For some reason, now was the time to sort it out! Life in the provinces always moves at a sensible pace - after all, what's the hurry?

So I walked into my old school, feeling quite the expert. Marched up to the very same piano I had heard being played just about every day of my school life, the very same piano I had actually helped to move across the hall a few times. Sure enough, the problem with the legs had not gone away: the piano was as unsafe as ever. 

Bechstein Grands of this age have legs that simply screw into the underside of the piano. The screw is part of the hardwood core of the leg and is about 6 cms. in diameter. I tightened up all three legs and the piano was as safe as it could ever be! The job was done in under 5 minutes!

I am sure the piano had been 'weak on the legs' for at least 6 years. Remarkable - miraculous that nobody, to my knowledge, had ever been injured by this unsafe piano!

Many years later, I was helping moving pianos around a warehouse. Piano warehouses often get so clogged up with pianos that invariably, the one you need to work on, is over in the far corner 'buried' behind 4 or 5 others. 

We came to move an old Broadwood Grand. There was a problem with one of the legs - but I didn't know it at the time! The pedals had not yet been fitted either - perhaps there was a problem with them as well! Of course, as luck would have it, when we tried to move the piano, the leg that gave out was the one nearest me. 

When piano legs break, there is no cartoon-like pause before the inevitable crash, no luxury of any thinking time. I looked down at the treble end of the piano, now resting heavily on the concrete floor and noticed - with relief, that my foot was about an inch from where the brute had hit the ground!

When pianos have to be moved, there is very good reason to be aware of Health & Safety!

The Piano World

© Steve Burden