Piano Video Lesson: What Happened to Steinway?

I'm Robert Estrin, you're watching LivingPianos.com with such an interesting show today. What happened to Steinway? This is 20 questions. Actually it's 20 statements that you can mark down true or false, so get your pencil and paper ready. But first a brief history of this venerable piano company.

Of course you all know Steinway, but I'm going to tell you some things you maybe don't know about the company to kind of get your head around it. Steinway actually, in 1850, Henry Steinweg, that's right, his name was Steinweg, a German immigrant, witnessed a show put on by P .T. Barnum, you know, the circus promoter, and it featured a chickering piano. It was a piano company going back to the 1820s in the United States, and it inspired him so much they could barely drag him off the stage, and a few years later in 1853 he founded Steinway & Sons in New York, and the company remained under family ownership for generations.

In 1880, Steinway opened a second factory in Hamburg, Germany.

Then many things, you know, he's developing concert artists and all that, but in 1931 the accelerated action was introduced, a new technology that caught the attention of many pianists, and again in 1936 their patented diaphragmatic soundboard, which is a way of tapering the soundboard in a unique way, producing a distinctive Steinway sound.

Finally in 1972, corporate ownership happened with CBS purchasing Steinway & Sons.

In 1992, Steinway introduced the Boston Piano brand. This is an OEM piano designed by Steinway, produced in Japan by Kawaii, with many Steinway elements, not the Steinway designed piano, but many elements that Steinway specified in the pianos produced by Kawaii in Japan.

In 1995, Steinway merged with Selmer Industries, you know, the makers of woodwind and brass instruments.

Then in 2001, Steinway introduced their Essex piano made by Young Chang, but a few years later, 2004, Young Chang suffered a bankruptcy, so in 2006 they started having the Essex produced in China by the world's largest piano manufacturer Pearl River, which is where they're still made today.

In 2015, Steinway introduced Spirio, a player system that is only available in pianos that are built by Steinway and only on new Steinways at that. Many innovative technologies like they took old recordings and digitized them so you can have your piano play Rubenstein when he was young or things of that nature.

And then in 2019, they added a record function to Spirio. All right, so now get ready for the questions.

They're really not questions, they're statements, and you can say are these true or false? And a lot of these you're going to have a hard time with, particularly this first one, and this is a very provocative question, a provocative statement I should say, which is Steinway makes a Mickey Mouse piano. Now that sounds like blasphemy, doesn't it? And some of you may wonder what I'm talking about here. Is it possible Steinway makes a Mickey Mouse piano? The answer is true, and this is a specially designed Steinway, and it has hand painting, and if you've got $375 ,000, you can get one of these limited, ultra limited edition Steinways for yourself. Now this isn't the only limited edition Steinway they have, it's one of the more amusing ones though, and I thought I'd make you aware of this because they have all sorts of different types of designer pianos that have extraordinarily high price tags to match.

When you consider that even an entry level Steinway Baby Grand is over $80 ,000, you can see how these limited runs would be expensive. Next one, Steinway has stopped producing their accelerated action. Wow, this was something that many people look for in their pianos all the time. Is it possible they stopped producing their accelerated action? This is true. Now you may wonder why would they stop making the accelerated action that so many people like? Well, a lot of it comes down to the fact that Steinway has made every effort to make the pianos that are made in Hamburg similar to the pianos that are made in New York. For example, for many, many decades, they had the five, ten and a half grand piano model L made in New York, and the exact same size model O made in Hamburg. Well, they discontinued the L so the O was made in both factories. Another one, a few years ago, they reintroduced the model A in New York. For decades, the A, the six foot two, was only made in Hamburg. So they have made improvements in their action and felt the accelerated action is no longer necessary. I'd love to hear from all of you in the comments, pianists and technicians, how you feel about the discontinuation of the accelerated action that was only available in New York Steinway's. Next one, Steinway stopped making the 1098 studio piano. Is this true? This is true. You can no longer buy a Steinway studio piano. They do not make any studio pianos.

Now what about the Steinway? Are they discontinuing all uprights made in New York? This is true. The K52, the full size upright will no longer be made in New York, and the only upright piano available from Steinway will be the K132 manufactured in Hamburg, Germany.

Next one, Steinway has stopped making the model S baby grand. You know, at five foot one inches, it's almost as expensive as the 57 model M, which is one of their most popular models, and there have been people saying that they're no longer making the model S. Is this true? This one is false. The S is still in production, just as before.

Just like this piano, the model S that my grandfather got for my father in the 1930s. We rebuilt it a number of years ago, still going strong, wonderful little baby grand.

Another one, Steinway moved their rebuilding offsite to Iowa.

Is this possible? They've always had their rebuilding in their New York factory. Would they really be producing it in Iowa? This is true. That's right.

They are making all their rebuilds, doing all their rebuilds of Steinway's in Iowa. Now, they do ship them their pin blocks and soundboards. In fact, that's the only place that soundboards and pin blocks made by Steinway are available other than on new Steinway pianos made in New York and Hamburg.

Next one, Steinway refinishes their pianos in New Jersey. Now, you may have heard this from people. Is this true? This is actually, it's partially true, but I have to say this is false because indeed there is a facility in New Jersey. They ship very, very few pianos that have intricate woodwork.

Think about the nightmare of the logistics trying to have all their pianos being refinished in New Jersey. At first, I thought maybe this was true because I had heard this rumor because maybe environmental laws with the new polyester high gloss finishes that Steinway is offering, maybe they couldn't do that in New York and had to do it in New Jersey, but no, this is false. Only a few pianos are actually refinished in New Jersey.

Here's another one for you. You may have heard about that Steinway is going public.

Is this true? This is actually false. There were murmurs about this, but they withdrew their SEC filing recently. They still may go public. It could happen, but as of right now, there are no immediate plans for going public. I know a lot of people would like to invest in Steinway. It's one of the strongest brand names out there.

Another one for you. Half of Steinway's made in New York have spiro systems. Is that possible that people really don't play these pianos or want to have the spiro systems in their pianos? Well, this is actually true. Half of the New York pianos have spiro systems in them and they're selling them like hotcakes. It's actually helped them tremendously to increase their sales.

Another one is spiro.

Spiro is available on all models.

Half of their pianos have them. This sounds very plausible. Is this true? This is false.

The spiro is only available on their 5 '7 model M, they're just under 7' model B, and they're under 9' model D concert grands, and yet half the total number of pianos they sell have the spiro systems. So a lot of Ds, Ms, and Ds have got spiro on them.

Here's another one. Spiro adds $20 ,000 to the cost of a piano.

Is this true? This is false. It actually adds $29 ,000 to the cost of a new Steinway. Can you imagine? So if you want it, it's the only way you can get it is on a Steinway. Next one, for $29 ,000 you get the piano that records and plays back, since you have both technologies now.

This is false. If you want it to record as well as play back, it's $48 ,000 additional to the price of a Steinway. So the least expensive recording spiro Steinway, their model M at 5 '7, will set you back $124 ,800 here in 2024.

All right, another one. SpiroCast plays live to other spiro pianos so that somebody could play a spiro in one place and other spiros play at the same time. And you can have a Lang Lang player piano and Yu -Ju Wang play your piano. Is this possibly true? This is true. That's what spiro is about. That's why people pay the big bucks to get it. Because think about it. Since there's so many Steinway artists out there, being able to have a library of Steinway artists is a big selling point for the spiro system.

Another one.

Steinway owns Renner, the action company that's available on Büsendorfer, on Faziolli, on Petrov, on so many pianos. This is actually true. Steinway bought Renner a few years ago. And they do have Renner. They've been using Renner actions on their Hamburg Steinways for years.

And the next one, Steinway, Hamburg Steinway and New York Steinways have the same hammers. This is actually false. There are unique hammers that are only available on New York Steinways, giving them a different sound from the Hamburg Steinways.

Steinway doesn't make their keyframes the way they traditionally have made them.

This is true. They're using a thicker, what they say is a sturdier construction.

Now, some technicians might find it a little harder because it's a heavier build, but they say that these are going to be more robust. So indeed, the keyframes are not made the same way they always have been made.

Another one that some people have been saying that Steinways sped up their manufacturing because of such demand. And according to Steinway, this is false. They have added more workers to try to keep up with demand, but they still take just as long to produce their pianos. It can take up to a year to produce a Steinway piano. There's a lot involved in building pianos. Here's one for you. It is illegal to buy a Steinway decal, like the name that's on the front of your piano or one that's on your soundboard. This is actually true. Steinway has made it illegal to buy the decal. So if you have a Steinway piano that you've had rebuilt, you might not be able to get a decal if your piano's been refinished, unless you use all Steinway parts. But the catch is you can't buy Steinway pin blocks or soundboards. So if you rebuild your Steinway and you haven't refinished, you can't buy the decals like you can on virtually every other piano brand in the world. Now, why does Steinway do this? Well, Steinway says it's because they want to assure that anything that's a Steinway at the front has the high quality associated with their name, so it doesn't tarnish the reputation.

Some people say it's because used Steinways are actually the biggest competition Steinway has, because if somebody wants a Steinway, they're probably not going to buy a Yamaha or a Kawhi or any other piano. They want a Steinway. So they're probably going to seek out a used Steinway. They can't buy a new one. Who knows what the truth is? It could be elements of both in that.

Another one, 90 % of concert artists play Steinway.

Could that possibly be true with all the fine piano brands in the world? This is actually false.

Over 97 % of concert artists play Steinway. Now, why is Steinway that much better than every other piano brand? I mentioned Fazzioli. There's so many great piano companies, Bechstein and Busendorfer.

But the fact of the matter is one by one, all the piano companies supporting the concert market dropped out. The last holdout up until near the end of the 20th century, close to the end of Baldwin's reign, Baldwin had a good share of the concert market. Now think of the daunting task of having concert brands ready in virtually every major city in the world at over $200 ,000 each. Even Yamaha tried to do that in the late 90s and couldn't swing it. It was just too big a burden having these pianos prepped ready for the concert stage in every major city.

So any touring concert pianist really has no choice. It's Steinway if they want to have pianos to play on in concerts all around the world.

Last question, and leave in the comments how well you did on these 20 questions. How many of you got right? How many of them surprised you? Love to hear from all of you here at LivingPianos .com.

The most expensive Steinway cost a million dollars.

Well, you know that a concert grand Steinway costs over $200 ,000.

Are there any models that cost a million dollars? Well, this is a misleading question because the answer is false. The most expensive Steinway is $2 .5 million.

What piano could possibly command $2 .5 million? Well, this is a rare hand -painted pictures at an exhibition named after the famous piece by Mussorgsky that hand -paints all the movements of this magnificent work on the Steinway piano for a one -of -a -kind piano that is just unbelievably intricate in its painting.

So anyway, that is the 20 questions for you. I wonder how many of these true and false you got right? How many of them surprised you? And if you have any other things that you want to mention about Steinway, do it here at LivingPianos .com, your online piano store. We're here for you. Thanks again for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/what-happened-to-steinway/

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