Bosendorfer Piano Factory

I grew up with a piano in our house.  We had an upright, and then later, a baby grand Baldwin.  I took piano lessons from Mrs. Brinker until I was about twelve years old.  She was a delightful lady with lots of veins in her hands and a Boston Terrier named Cricket.  She told me once that I had great rhythm.  I used to think the complement was her placeholder for students who had no underlying talent.  Now, later in life, I realize that this was not an empty complement because I am a terrific dancer. 

On Wednesday the Attache and I took a tour of the Bosendorfer piano factory in Wiener Neustadt, about 45 minutes drive from Vienna.  Mrs. Brinker was a good teacher, and she certainly knew how to recognize rhythm, but she failed to teach me about Bosendorfer, which is perhaps the top name in grand pianos.  The company only produces about 350 grands per year, with a price tag of about $100K each.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of their concert grands were a half-million dollars or more.  It's no wonder the price is so high, the wood comes from handpicked 150 year old trees that must be aged after cutting, and almost all of the work in building the pianos is handcrafted.  The guts of a grand piano are remarkably complicated.  It's one part machine, one part fine furniture.  Getting all the keys, hammers, and strings in alignment is a time consuming process.  They wet-sand the cast iron frame by hand for nearly 40 hours. Preliminary tuning and voicing takes days.  They go so far as to trim the smallest fibers off the felt of the hammers to insure perfect sound.  A lot of that work is lost on me.  While the technician was tuning the piano, I thought it sounded fine and he said he had about eight hours of work to go. 

Seeing the factory renewed my interest in the piano.  I can still read music.  If I find the sheet music, I bet I can play a simple version of Beethoven's Fifth with ten minutes of practice.  It's unlikely I'll buy a Bosendorfer but I've got an electronic keyboard stashed away in the basement somewhere.  Maybe I should take it out, crack the knuckles, and see what I can do.

I posted a few pictures from the tour at Bosendorfer Tour.

Comments

[Jen]

Your music dork friend is very excited about this.