Click here for a great Slate article, make sure you read to the end.

To recap my philosophy, I do not see the worlds true high end makers as competitors. With the idea of “tonal diversity” firmly in mind, I think these makers support each other in trying to reach prospects who might otherwise have, from pure marketing exposure, a narrow idea of what represents true quality in the piano world.

These European makers have very specific, very individual tone that usually appeals in a very direct, individual way. If someone truly loves the sound of X, they probably won’t be interested in Z. And this is a good thing, since there are many music styles and many approaches to interpretation. There should be, logically, many tonal options available to support this wonderful world of individuality.

Therefore I find it personally and professionally rewarding to learn as much as I can about these makers and they have all, so far, universally accepted my visits and my intentions. A couple of years ago I toured Sauter but I wasn’t blogging then and my photos were not very good. Last year I toured Bluthner, Schimmel and Steingraeber. At that time only Bluthner allowed me to take photos.

I took another tour in early November visiting August Förster, Steingraeber (this time with photos) and Feurich. I posted a review of this trip on PianoWorld. I’m taking that post as the core here, with some expanding.

And the 3rd unique feature, in my opinion, is the 4th unison string in the treble. This string is raised above the level of the other 3, so the hammer does not strike it. It’s purpose is to vibrate sympathetically, contributing to the unique Bluthner tone.

It even has it’s own little damper.

Bluthner was the only maker of the 3 that allowed me to take photos. As Christian said, one can take all the photos one wants, you still won’t be able to build a Bluthner, and he’s right.

The factory is a familiar sight of individual craftspeople working on individual pianos, with a mixture of machines for doing various steps, primarily wood working such as planing and trimming.

Rim Construction

There are, in my mind, 3 unique structural features of the Bluthner. The first is the sectioned inner and outer rim. Bluthner uses a laminated rim, as is common in piano building. To those new to this, laminated simply means layers of red beech glued together in a mold. This is a very familiar and traditional method of making a piano rim.

However, instead of being bent all in one piece, they are built in sections and then joined together. The purpose, in Christians words, is to have a rim that is completely free from stress or tension.

In this photo, you can see the outer rim section, and on the right, just the edge of the inner rim joining.

Cylindrical Soundboard Crowning

The second unique feature is the cylindrical, rather than spherical crown. It’s a little hard to show in a photo, but Christian demonstrated with a business card:

This is done for both strength and tonal purposes and is on the uprights as well.

Wednesday morning was a visit to Bluthner, where Christian Bluthner met us with his customary hospitality. This was the hardest day for my son, who had to endure a number of hours of piano related talk before getting on to the good part, but he was a trooper.

I’m not short, Christian is tall!

I’ve been trying to come up with some examples of recordings where the non-Steinway piano is notated, AND it is a good representation of that makers sound.

I have many Bosendorfer examples, mostly Garrick Ohlsson’s vast output. I have also found some bad examples, such as good piano sound but bad playing (no, not Garrick) and good playing but bad piano sound. In the case of Bosendorfer, if the right technician isn’t working on it, then it is not going to be a good representation of the Bosendorfer sound.

I have found a recording of Garrick’s made on his rebuilt Mason & Hamlin (Prokofiev, Bartok, Webern, Barber) which, to my ear, does have a good representative Mason sound. Personally, I’m not crazy about the piano sound but I love the repertoire.

I also recently acquired another recording that is the best of both…good piano playing and good piano sound. In this case, it’s a Bluthner produced recording, “Alexander Paley Plays Bluthner” (Liszt, Mendelssohn, Bach, Mozart and more!). Again, to my ear, it has a very characteristic and pleasing, very specific, Bluthner sound. I like it a lot, actually.