Steinway vs. Bosendorfer

today I'm here with one of the coolest videos I've done it's bit of a smaller scale video so my videos have had lots of different pianos and instruments in him but this one here is a bit of a simpler video on my left I guess would be your right I have a bosner for 190 from about the early 1900s and on my right or your left I have a Steinway & Sons model Oh which is from a similar time period I believe it's from about in 1915 to 1920 so what did these two pianos have in common well they're both European this was made in Hamburg Germany and this was made in Vienna Austria they're both approximately the same time period give or take 20 years they're both about the same size this is 190 centimeters I don't exactly know how many feet and inches this is but it's a Steinway model oh so they're both about the same size both European pianos and they've also both been rebuilt I think by the same person and whoever rebuilt these did a fantastic job of doing them this one especially looks like a brand new piano this one as you can see has an art kay so it doesn't look brand new it's not like a new style but it's the quality of a brand new piano and it sounds like a new piano so I think this is a really cool comparison I've had some people ask me to do like a comparison between like a baby grand and a mid side grand and like a ten-foot grand that's not this this is comparing two baby grands from approximately the same era approximately the same place in the world and I think there's gonna be a kind of a cool one so what I'm gonna do is start off on these Steinway & Sons I'm going to play my little test piece that I wrote myself then I'm just gonna swivel around and play the same thing on the bows nerver then I'm gonna screw back around play a Bach based on the Steinway let's wiggle back around and play the same thing on here and then after that I want to play I think an excerpt of clair de lune on both of these I do have a full video of each of these pianos where I play clair de lune in its entirety but to keep this video just a little bit shorter I'm just gonna play a excerpt of clair de lune and I hope that you guys enjoy that on both of these pianos and then after that I'll talk about my feelings what I like about you Japan and what makes them different what makes them similar and I hope that you guys enjoy so let's get started here 1915 1920 restored Steinway Oh versus a 1900s maybe late 1890s I don't know the exact year but a early 1900s bosner for 190 I hope you guys enjoy [Music] I know it made crazy noises I'm sorry [Music] they're no crazy noises that time [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] so hopefully you enjoyed this comparison between these two interesting pianos and I'm sorry about all that we were adventures I can't really help doing that but hopefully you guys enjoyed that it's really interesting because there are two pianos from the same basic part of the world from Europe and from a partially the same time period but yet because they're constructed differently by two completely different manufacturers who have a completely different view on how a piano should built should be built they actually have a completely different sound the Homburg Steinway Oh is very rich and deep and very very complex sounding whereas compared to this the bows nipper has a very clean very pure very simple sound and I can't really say that one is necessarily better than the other I personally prefer the Steinway to this bo's'n River but perhaps some of you would prefer this Bose in Erfurt over the Steinway it really just at this point both of these are really really amazing pianos and at this point it kind of just comes down to what sound do you prefer I really loved the sound here of the vase on the Steinway I mentioned this in my full review of this piano and I'll mention it here again for a piano of the size which is maybe about I don't know close to 6 feet but not much bigger than that the bass on this piano is probably the best I've ever heard from a piano of this size [Music] it has a little bit of that tubby sound that a smaller pan and will have but it's very deep and it's very thick sounding listen to how this sounds [Music] and then compare it to the base on this you can hear there is a lot of difference here at this here is just more I don't know pillowy and soft and rich this one here has a little bit of perhaps it's brighter overtones it has a bit of a different sound I personally really really love the sound of the bass on this piano it feels like it's right there it's you can almost touch the sound it's that cool and it has a really really fantastic sound and another thing I love about this Steinway here is the sound of the treble it's very very resonant take a listen to the very beginning of Claire to learn here [Music] they're all that you can of course hear the notes that I'm claiming you can also hear others notes that I didn't play [Music] it's kind of like a natural built-in reverb in a way and I love that sound of sympathetic resonance in a piano this bosner fur actually doesn't have very much of it check this out same passage [Music] you can hear it and it is there but from what I'm hearing it's not quite as noticeable as on the Steinway is that good is that bad either way it really doesn't matter it really comes down to what do you like do you like the sympathetic resonant sound or do you not like the sound of sympathetic resonance I personally do but like I said these pianos are really so good that at this point it kind of comes down to which aesthetic do you want do you want the more modern do you want the more antique and which towns do you want another thing I want to mention about the treble is that the treble in this pan is very quiet and very soft and gentle and the treble on this panel is a lot louder and brighter and more powerful so if you're wanting to do say home performances with other musicians or something like that this would probably be the better piano between these two because this has a bit more power if you're playing loud music you can really hit it hard and it'll really project and if you're playing quiet you can still make it go very quiet this one here I don't think would work quite as well for playing loud music with other musicians up here in the treble it just wouldn't quite have what it needs but where's this instrument woodwork that this one probably wouldn't work as well as in like a really small room if you have a small room that you want to put a piano in or if your house or living quarters are small the piano like this that just kind of has a natural naturally quieter tone would be a really good choice because if you put this piano in a tiny room especially if it had like wood floors and bare walls it would probably get really annoying and I'm just being honest whereas this piano probably wouldn't it would be a bit more gentle up here in the trouble because the treble is naturally quieter compared to played the same volume also this has a way more sympathetic resonance but I also want a holding pedal down here [Music] that having sounds for the resume but I think it has a little bit less than this but you can hear there is a big difference here with the sound of the treble [Music] this here is more brighter it's more direct it's a bit more out there it projects just a little bit better and so that is something else I want to mention about these two pianos this one has a bit of a quieter more mellow tone that would be really great for playing in a smaller room this one air has a bit of a bigger louder more powerful sound that would be great for playing in a larger room playing with other musicians or just playing without and having fun so hopefully you guys enjoyed this interesting review between these two pianos I think that's about everything I wanted to talk about again both of these have been completely rebuilt I think this one has the original soundboard I don't know that this one does but all the other components haven't replaced this has a brand new interaction which feels amazing I think this does well but it has a bit of a different touch it might not be Renner I'm not 100% sure the strings dampers hammers everything has been completely gone over in these counters and they both sound and play absolutely amazing I just saw these two sitting across from each other and they had so many similarities that I really thought it would be a cool video to do so hopefully you guys enjoyed hearing it hopefully you guys liked it and if you want you can go check out some of my other videos I'm here at in Stanton California at Benjamin Kim's piano store it's called Kim's pianos and it's a really fantastic store they have awesome panels like these and many many others so if you're in the stands an area definitely drop by say hi to Benjamin Kim if he's here say hi to Steve Rivera future tell them I said hi and tell them that you came for my video is there something like that and definitely come by and check out their store because they have an amazing selection of really high-quality pianos this one is one of my favorites in the store yeah it's a baby grand but it's a really really good one does the bass compete with the concert grand honestly no it doesn't but it definitely outshines most any baby grand that you could put it up against very few I think would have that thick and that deep of a sound even a little bit bigger piano some of them might not have quite as nice of a sound in the bass and I really loved playing this piano so again hopefully you enjoyed it you might want to check out some of my other videos I've got lots of others from Benjamin Kim's piano store and so if you aren't able to come and visit or in person maybe you might enjoy watching those and kind of getting a virtual tour and seeing what his awesome collection of Canada sounds like so if you do all that thank you very much if you want you might think about subscribing to stay updated for all my later upcoming videos and if you do that thank you very much and I'll see you in the next video goodbye

Channel: ThePianoforever

Views: 73,033

Keywords: James Pavel Shawcross, ThePianoforever, Milan Recording Studios, JPS, JPS © 2016, JPS © 2017, JPS © 2018, Hamburg Steinway, Hamburg Steinway D, Bosendorfer, Bosendorfer 280 VC, 290, 214

Id: NXfd_Jd1R38

Length: 15min 34sec (934 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 26 2019