C.Bechstein Pianos - Grand Pianos

[Music] creation and sound tone and silence sphere of infinity of time and of eternity air of commitment of the great masters i want an instrument that lifts me onto a higher plane says the great pianist abdel rahman al-bashar a world which touches the heart of many people their own search which resonates harmoniously with an ancient persian legend the wise man hafiz held that the free soul had no desire to become unmeshed in the prison of the mortal clay of corruptible matter and he continued it was only when god charmed the soul with the sound of music played by angels that the soul became enchanted only then was she willing to flow into the body in order to experience the music and thus life itself an instrument is only great when it has this ability continued elbasha i have always loved bechtein because of its intensity its tender tone it's singing sound fast foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] pathways to music roadways of life the journey of a carl beststein piano like that of a stradivarius starts here high up in the italian val de fiamme more precisely in the wood growing here near the altitude of the tree line the harshness of the environment for a spruce leads to very slow growth and correspondingly tight annular rings this produces the best possible characteristics for the creation of the vital sound board which is if you like the heart of every piano grand or upright it is almost as if the tension the pressure on or against the irrepressible vitality of the trees produces the most beautiful of diamonds for the highest category the sea beststein concert grand piano only wood grown at over 1200 meters is chosen these trees grow at the stateliest pace of all such wonderful wood is a treasure it's guarded accordingly and treated by sea best stein with the closest possible attention the local woods mainly beech and pine as well as spruce sometimes go through drying cycles for as long as five years only the finest of materials prepared to the absolute optimum can form the basis without it any attempt to construct a perfect instrument can never succeed on the instrument the uncompromising approach that we have seen at the very outset with the search and selection of materials for either a grand piano or an upright is an axiom at beststein a tradition that has been running for more than 160 years this fundamental refusal to compromise has always been augmented by carl bergstein's musical vision as well as his extraordinary innovative spirit back in the 19th century he had already established the name as the brand of choice for the most famous pianists and composers in the world brahms debussy ravel list composed on their best signs in 1901 the new concert hall in london's wigmore street was named bechtein hall around 300 concerts took place there every year even queen victoria ordered a sea best line it was richly gilded especially for her but she went on to decorate it herself with paintings in the last few years beckstein has produced replicas in this and other historic styles bechtsteins have always been famous for their excellent playability but it's the quality of their sound that has carried them into legend as the pianist saleem ashkar agrees i decided to play the beethoven cycle on a beekstein because for me this piano gives me everything i need to express this music it has the brilliance it has the warmth of the tone and it has this quality where the sound is carrying you can create a real singing tone that i think is very important to all music but uh especially important to beethoven [Music] is as well as unconditional diligence from beginning to end as seen in the selection of materials a further best iron axiom runs parallel throughout the build process the constant search and integration of the latest technology such as low emission glues and varnishes the best glues for the precisely defined veneers in the frame of a grand piano are a prerequisite for securing the thousand-fold doweling on the individual layers the importance of the experience garnered over time by long-standing employees when sound precise judgment is called for is also brought out here how strongly does the glue have to be applied depending on the type of wood the thickness and absorbency of each layer and its position in the laminated structure the tight time window within which the layers must enter the press demands concentration does compliance with the exact pressure build up within the mold no tolerance up non down [Music] a period of rest to allow curing now follows this is vital so the new shape can be perfectly absorbed into the layers of veneers they lie resting for many months only then completely proofed against any distortion can the posts be fitted precisely as of now nothing in the frame is allowed to change but this process is not just about extreme stability and longevity the avoidance of any impairment in sound quality is equally prioritized the frame of a piano is part of the entire resonating body and its perfection makes an essential contribution to the c beststein sound all components are related to the final result invisible at the heart of all this is a symbiotic resonance that motivates the whole team to manufacture a special instrument the relatively soft wood is supported by the utterly contrasting nature of the hard steel to absorb the 30 tons of tension built up by the tuned strings the sheer precision of the cast iron plate is a self-evident example of the perfect interaction between craftsmanship and state-of-the-art technology at best time the most sensitive drilling and milling operations are carried out by cnc's with a precision that cannot be achieved by hand in spite of this the training of every employee begins intensively with precise craftsmanship the aim is to build an empathy with the essential skills as opposed to mere processes this connectivity with the company creates two big advantages it encourages the apprentices to stay on at best time when they are fully trained and it creates a pool of potential ambassadors for best stein excellence at the homes of their worldwide partners development of competence in the individual reflects the experience and capability of the company as a whole through long-standing tradition this has grown into an innovative [Music] foreign human effort and hard work fundamentals for excellence in performance endurance stoic patience uncompromising precision with the seemingly endless filling and sanding and this is only for the castings refilling re-sanding step by operational step meditative aspects alternating with the nightmare multiplicity of tiny corners roundings edges with ever finer sandpaper [Music] finally that silky smooth surface is achieved that offers a perfect foundation for the gleaming luster of the castings particles layer by layer the finest of increments rather like a minimally developing theme by ulriker hager at the end a sea beekster grand piano plate shines like gold with a weight of half a ton [Music] sheer strength in a settled material that will withstand the 30 tons the strings will exert over the years to come in order to exclude unwanted resonances the iron alloy must be designed in such a way that the vibration that develops in the cast plate when the strings are struck is carefully controlled the medium may fancy itself at peace but not even the sophisticated casting like everything else at berkstein can escape the company's continuous research and development instruments [Music] [Music] [Music] the scope of bechtein's design department goes far beyond this just to influence the sound statement and not least the playability and infinity of adjustment screws await in addition however a universe of possibilities to influence the basic structure of an instrument is there for those with ears to hear thus it can be flexibly adapted to accommodate the wishes of individual artists online [Music] [Music] secrets are written into piano building some can be spied by those who would copy them but deeper down lie enigmas that are harder to define for building in the harmony at the more profound levels of this multifaceted complex instrument these simply cannot be copied they stem from the interaction of decades of knowledge and experience in whole departments not just the ability of the individual it's rather like that magic feeling of harmony that develops among the players in a good jazz group [Music] a question might be the way different moisture levels in a variety of woods to be joined for soundboard and ribs have to be defined so that when they're glued up the curvature and the stresses will do what the theoretical calculations say they must how should the ribs be placed exactly on the soundboard and how much should they be thinned down so as to achieve the greatest beam power at the same time as the highest transmission speed [Music] how is the exact course of the bridge to be determined and how to establish the direction of its grain for the best stein sound a specification which is then machined to a hundredth of a millimeter with the help of a specially developed production program for the cnc technology a level of precision which again is unattainable by hand along with many other things every single hitch pin for the strings is positioned with pinpoint accuracy to align the technique the exact height the precision abba and das [Music] there's an artistic side to all this meticulous exactness as well by which the mystic area of sarah tafsanli's thoughts touches the construction process woods may be almost the same the metal alloys may be too even the man in all his competence for measuring the bridge and plate heights may always arrive at exactly the same settings to meet the ideal profile established for the acoustic guideline [Music] strings may be identical so may the hooks and eyelets if we take these as a metaphor they show that even such a complex puzzle of parts as the ones building up a piano forte can't extinguish that vital minimal scope for individuality just what is it that characterizes a pianist like dudana masmanishvili tuning pins may be as mentioned no more than tuning pins and of course the mechanics of the keyboard are always produced in exactly the same way to meet the best iron ideal of precision retardation is zero while lightness and the ideal balance between resistance and fluidity come with increasingly finer more minute corrections when the keys are aligned on their special friction preventing pins we're dealing with tenths with trifles only the perfectly trained eye can still see what's happening yet a sensitive touch would feel even smaller differences when playing as a source of impairment and not just when they're caressed as poetically as nadia mokhtari's fingers the hammers for the stops on the 88 tones are optimally balanced by heat on top of this their stems have previously been carefully sorted in line with their natural tone oscillation so they can be fitted on the keyboard appropriately to the pitch [Music] and yet there is a magic touch some sort of spell in romantic terms one might almost believe that somewhere hidden in some phase of development a soul has slipped in unseen at the very least an individual emerges a character is formed a damper may still be relatively unaffected by which individual has installed and adjusted it to achieve a fine decaying dampening for every sound but a hammerhead will not be able to stay uninfluenced not during the various grinding processes and certainly not in the later intonation c bechtstein has no intention of limiting this scope for adaptation to the taste of the pianist but the framework on which individuality is built should begin as a level playing field of unquestionable excellence the axiom is to achieve the highest levels of control and thus to maintain independence from suppliers dissatisfaction about the characteristics of the universally available hammerheads from third-party manufacturers has led to a supreme effort to produce these according to bechstein's own standards as the only piano builder in the western world c bechtstein now produce their own hammerheads with a resilient yet dynamic felt covering around a stable core this is achieved with a new and elaborate process that manages to live up to their own demands for unimpeachable excellence here are three d-282 models at the best stein center in berlin for the pianist ash car to choose from for a beethoven concert series [Music] all are equal yet the possibility remains for each to have its own hint of individuality i've spent the last 30 years every day several many many hours with the piano so you develop an intimacy with the instrument you develop a certain knowledge uh that is immediate you know i touch a piano and i i know if it speaks to me if i can if there is a barrier if the energy is flowing immediately or do i need to make adjustments and and again it's a part of it is very objective part of it is very subjective and and and and so basically i could choose a piano in two seconds [Music] so it remains a mystery a direct feeling or flare a kind of resonance with the whole constructed out of seven thousand individual parts in the case of a c bechtstein instrument that ideally inspires and supports the pianist through its sound and playability throughout the concert enabling him to make the whole spectrum of his creative wish come true it brings out the unity of the instrument and the pianist both for him and his audience [Music] a sound that can touch deeply it can actually open up space for miracles to fill as pianist haiu zhang describes there are some moments you just forgot yourself where you are just log basically logged out from the from the reality [Music] and then i think in those moments um you swing between this like this sixth sense and um it's a beautiful feeling somehow you just feel like also a little bit drunk somehow but it's not really drunk uh you're very dirty you're very you became very addicted to uh like your music uh your music making the literature and even got somehow very close to the composer in a sense and yeah i mean in those in those moments i think i think that's it yeah you feel it [Music] a single tone can be which its sound can remind one of what arvo pertuss said you can lose yourself in it and find yourself in it a wonderful paradox an island damage destination [Music] [Music] recalls the magic of the sound of a sea beckstein in full flow at one of her first concerts in tel aviv i remember it to be really really special it was in israel and i was preparing for performance at the museum of arts in tel aviv and there was this old beg stein and i had to play jean-philippe promo suites and i remember it to be striking because the sound was completely different it was extremely colorful full of refinements and reminded me extremely of this old recording that i love of all russian pianists who love to play on beechstein like scriabin and shostakovich tuning up for a concert by dennis prashayav and nadia mokhtari on two grand pianos with compositions of these old masters in the big mercato hall quite different spatial conditions than in times gone by yet today's beckstein has managed to transfer the secrets of its legendary sound to the modern auditorium defended [Music] [Music] such a wide variety of colors and expressions something like a sound perhaps beckstein inspired the old masters but he's doing it too for the great names of modern genres such as jazz a genre whose musicians hang their hats on their own sound like nobody else does duke ellington dave brubeck chick career chai coltrane at historic concerts younger stars like the danish morton chance in his group who were chosen to represent their country at mania festival around the world [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] well first and foremost when you play jazz it's so important to to have this freedom of you have to be able to come up with stories and those stories are sometimes they they appear when you're on stage when you're communicating musically with your with your colleagues on stage and you also need precision so it's a it's a very it's very um important to have an instrument that can kind of help you getting the position but also adding something different to your play that you didn't you didn't know that you had when playing this beckstein i definitely feel like this is helping me coming up with ideas and feeding me when when you know when i'm when i'm lost and and it it's something that can you know it feels just nice to be playing this kind of dark sounding piano and and it has its own character and it's really hard to tell why it has it but it just it feels good in my fingers a grand piano like an upright piano or any other instrument at this level can offer something like a gate to freedom to one's own world but before it's allowed to be that at best line it must go through what are called the seven portals of quality control each construction section is checked before further processing is allowed it has to meet the highest standards set by themselves to one hundred percent some human institutions like mr glass here must give the okay at each gate otherwise the respective piece of work is corrected reworked or figuratively polished until it is immaculate finished in its perfection ready for the artist ready for sarah tafsanli and her expression her goals her dreams ready for the effort and the tension of a cd recording and ultimately at the end of all this creativity ready for the experience of the concert where the cd is released long sometimes demanding routes to the desired end like those of the artists whose inability to mute her first piano asked a lot in the way of patience from her neighbors happily see beststein has been using its 160 years of innovative power to develop muting systems all the way back to its early beginnings this has finally been perfectly realized by the electronic vario system with its complex samples of the c bechtstein sound its compact handy intuitive control unit and its headphone connection despite his enormous success karl bechtstein's style was always the way of modesty a tradition followed by today's chairman of the board mr freimut as he carries the great story forward into a still distant future it's the responsibility the enthusiasm the perfection and the beauty of the great masters that gilliloff and maeske are able to highlight it's as though they could make the instrument speak to us [Music] hmm [Music] in the persian legend it was the miraculous music that lured the soul into the clay but as the philosopher hafiz added in reality the soul was the music bringing this to masterly ecstasy through sheer devotion that is the joy that is the core served by all the axioms the research and the efforts of c beststein the happiness of a task of a journey this is fascinating i was just working so [Music] in all its nuances constructing preparing playing listening learning in the tradition of the great masters in all their orientations with styles as different as the concert halls of this world [Applause] from a villain backhouse and an arthur rubinstein to a leonard bernstein from the celebrities of jazz to a chuck level whose honours include not only the grammy lifetime achievement award for successes with the allman brothers the rolling stones eric clapton and george harrison but in equal recognition of his commitment to nature conservation with forest protection topping his list [Music] circles close to the wood to the miraculous tree to the personal commitment to the feeling to touch hearts sustainably the core the goal in a spectrum of moods from the beaming of a ray charles to all the ease and pure joy of the show pianist david and gertz this isn't the london best style hall it would be much too small for this audience of twelve hundred it's a beststein workshop set aside for this special concert [Music] resonances of delight resonances of tones resonances of c bechtstein [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] you

Channel: Klavierhaus Pianoart

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Length: 37min 28sec (2248 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 02 2021