Just try to stuff this spiffy Model D into a stocking
BY ARTHUR KAPTAINIS, THE GAZETTE December 20, 2008
Looking for a last-minute gift? Something for the man or woman who has everything?
John Rizopoulos of Pianos Prestige has a spiffy little Steinway priced to sell at $89,000, plus tax.
Actually, it is neither spiffy nor little. The Model D in question is 3 years old and has an obvious scuff mark above the keyboard. And at a shade under nine feet, it is hard to fit in most salons.
"We have sold nine-footers to private homes, but not that many," Rizopoulos said. The five-foot-seven-inch Model M moves faster in the domestic market.
On the other hand, this piano is a CNA D - short for Concert and Artist D - meaning that it is a thoroughbred authorized by Steinway & Sons for rental and concert use. Gary Graffman, Paul Lewis and Jimmy Bri??re are among the pros who have performed on it.
As for the price, it compares favourably with the $140,000 tag on an out-of-the-box Steinway D shipped from New York.
"Wow. That's pretty cheap," Wonny Song said when he was told about the recession-busting offer. The Montrealer played the piano, CNA151, last May in the Montreal Chamber Music Festival and fondly remembers its "mellow" tone. He might stop by the shop on Sherbrooke St. and give it another spin.
Anton Kuerti, who is known for his exacting standards, also played this piano during the festival. He had some critical comments about its action, which he worked on himself. "All told, it was pretty good," the Torontonian concluded. That might be a rave, considering the source.
One paradox of the piano world is that the instruments most admired by professional musicians are not necessarily those favoured in the domestic market. The Model D, which enjoys something close to a monopoly in concert halls, is big and powerful.
A smaller grand is a more likely fit, acoustically and otherwise, for a home space. Dominant as the Steinway brand is in the concert hall, the company must compete with the Asian giants Yamaha and Kawai in the living room.
Another paradox: Domestic customers generally prefer their pianos shiny and new. Concert pianists judge with their ears and fingers rather than their eyes and are partial to pianos that have been broken in and debugged.
They are also apt to prefer one piano to another. Steinways are largely hand-crafted and thus individual in character. Pianists have long debated the relative merits of New York and Hamburg instruments, but specimens from either plant have their idiosyncrasies.
"It's amazing how different each nine-foot is," Rizopoulos said. "You sit down and hear them and each one has a little something that the other one doesn't."
North American professionals who buy a Model D usually go to New York and choose their favourite from the stable. Institutions will hire a pianist, or possibly a team of pianists, to make the selection.
Indeed, most D sales are institutional. Last year, Rizopoulos (the Steinway dealer for all
of Quebec) sold a D to Radio-
Canada, which needed a concert-calibre piano for its Studio 12, and the renovated Palais Montcalm in Quebec City.
Such instruments, of course, are black. Few pros other than Liberace have shown an interest in elaborate cabinets. But there is a high-end nonprofessional market for "art case" pianos. Albrecht Goertz, creator of the BMW 507, has attached his name to a streamlined limited-edition Steinway and the glass sculptor Dale Chihuly has designed a flamboyant model called the Olympia. ...Continue
