BöSENDORFER

'Bösendorfer' (L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is a piano manufacturer, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BAWAG PSK Gruppe, and is based in Vienna, Austria.

Contents

History

Models

Conservatory Series

Special and Limited editions

Designed models

Characteristics

Noteworthy events

References

External links

History

Established by Ignaz Bösendorfer in 1828, Bösendorfer is the oldest piano manufacturer still producing its own instruments today and has had a history of producing some of the finest instruments in the world. In 1830, it was granted the status of official piano maker to the Emperor. Ignaz's son 'Ludwig Bösendorfer' (April 15, 1835 – May 9, 1919) took over in 1859, operating from new premises from 1860. Between 1872 and its closure in 1913, the associated Bösendorfer-Saal was one of the premier concert halls of Vienna. In 1909, the company was sold to Carl Hutterstrasser, who was succeeded by his sons Alexander and Wolfgang in 1931. In 1966 Bösendorfer was taken over by the Jasper Corporation (later renamed Kimball International), parent company of Kimball Pianos, where it remained before returning to Austrian hands when it was purchased by BAWAG PSK Gruppe in 2002.^[1]
Bösendorfer pioneered the extension of the typical 88-key keyboard, creating the ''Imperial'' Grand (Model 290), which has 97 keys, and later the Model 225, which has 92. The extra keys, all at the bass end of the keyboard, were originally hidden beneath a hinged panel mounted between the piano's conventional low A and the left-hand end-cheek to prevent them being struck accidentally during normal playing; more recent models have omitted this device and simply have the upper surface of the extra natural keys finished in matte black intead of white to differentiate them from the standard 88.
One of the earliest and most important artists to be associated with Bösendorfer was Franz Liszt, who found that their pianos and those of the Bechstein company were the only instruments capable of withstanding his tremendously powerful playing. Still today Bösendorfer is known as a piano that will withstand the rigors of concert halls and tours.
The latest development in the Bösendorfer range is CEUS - a computer controlled grand piano. This option can be fitted to most Bösendorfer pianos to allow the direct recording of pieces whilst capturing all the subtle nuances of a performance.

Models

===Standard Black Models^[2]===

Model #	Length	Keys
170	5' 7"	88
185	6' 1"	88
200	6' 7"	88
214	7'	88
225	7' 4"	92
280	9' 2"	88
290	9' 6"	97
130CL	Upright	88

Conservatory Series

In order to appeal to a wider market, Bösendorfer designed the Conservatory Series for colleges and universities who could not afford Bösendorfer's standard black model pianos. The production of the two CS Series pianos spends less time in "non-critical areas," cutting down costs of production and purchase, making them more affordable than standard models.
The cases and frames are of satin finish, rather than polished, and the pianos are loop-strung rather than single-strung.

Special and Limited editions

Bösendorfer has a number of specially designed pianos named after famous composers such as Franz Schubert and Frédéric Chopin, as well as pianos designed for special occasions, such as Bösendorfer's 170th and 175th anniversaries.
A small number of 290SE automatic reproducing pianos were built and sold when Bösendorfer was under the ownership of Kimball. The 290 was fitted with electronics and mechanics to record to magnetic tape and playback through electro-mechanical actuation of the piano. Later the 290SE was able to be attached to a PC computer for recording, editing, and playback; the 290SE is designed to run under the then current Microsoft Windows v3.1 operating system. The 290SE system was the first commercially available computer controlled "player piano" that could accurately reproduce both the notes and intensity recorded by a performer however, it was not patented and other companies soon introduced patented reproducing piano technologies. 'SE' stands for Stahnke Engineering, for Wayne Stahnke, the inventor of this mechanism. These pianos are still quite actively used and sought after when one comes up for sale.

Designed models

Several people, including Giorgio and Ferdinand Alexander Porsche have designed pianos for Bösendorfer. Many people cite the recent policy of the company to concentrate too strongly on the marketing and promotion of their designer range rather than their definitive models as a major factor in the company's recent economic failure.
For example, there are only 2 Hans Hollein specially designed Bösendorfer Imperial Grand pianos in the world. One is located at the Grand Bohemian hotel in Orlando, Florida. The other is in Shanghai, China. The Bösendorfer in Orlando was constructed out of 80% of the same wood and has brass legs worth $14,000.00 each. The value of the Hollein Bösendorfers is estimated at $250,000.00 each.

Characteristics

The Bösendorfer sound is usually described as darker or richer than the more pure but less full-bodied sound of other pianos like the Steinway or Yamaha. On the Imperial Grand, this is due in part to the inclusion of 9 additional bass notes below bottom A (the Imperial Grand has 97 keys, compared to the more usual 88). The strings for these notes are not often struck, since very little music has been composed to make use of them. However, the strings for these notes do resonate when other strings in the piano are struck, and their presence contributes to the additional body in the tone of these pianos.
Music written to include rich harmonic colorations, such as bebop, is often written in such a way that the player plays the upper parts of a musical chord's harmonic series (3rds, 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, for example) without playing the tonic note of that chord. In these cases, it is up to the listener's ear to "replace" the missing tonic, revealing the chord's basis. However, the Bösendorfer's additional strings generate - albeit at low volume - the tonic by vibrating sympathetically with the played notes, contributing further to the fullness of the sound.
Classical music typically does not omit the tonic note (at least not for very long), and so derives a smaller advantage, if any, from these extra strings. As a result of this acoustic behavior, many jazz pianists such as Oscar Peterson and artists in the pop genre such as Tori Amos have chosen the Bösendorfer for this reason, while it has not distinguished itself nearly as much in the classical world.
These extra 9 keys were originally added so that pianists could play Busoni's transcriptions of J.S. Bach's organ works that required the 32' bass pipes (usually played on the pedal organ).^[3]
Also, the bass notes of the Bösendorfer (including the extra bass keys) are very powerful as being able to play volume demanding pieces.

Noteworthy events

★ On 11 April, 2007, a Bösendorfer Grand piano worth £45,000 was destroyed when it was dropped from a delivery van. The piano was to feature at the "Two Moors Festival" in Devon.^[4]

★ In 2006, a Model 214 was built as a gift in memory of Ward Virts to The College of Southern Maryland for their future Fine Arts department. Ward Virts was a talented concert pianist and hailed from Southern Maryland. The piano is currently on campus in a humidity and temperature controlled room. It is valued at over $85,000.^[5]

References

1. "The History", ''Bösendorfer Official Website'', 2007. Accessed June 2 2007.
2. "Bösendorfer's Standard Models", ''Bösendorfer Official Website'', 2007. Accessed June 1 2007.
3. "Model 290 Imperial", ''Bösendorfer Official Web Site'', 2007. Accessed June 2 2007.
4. "Grand piano damaged in lorry fall", ''BBC News'', April 10 2007. Accessed June 2 2007
5. "Ward Virts Piano Project", ''The Ward Virts Piano Project Inc. Website'', 2005. Accessed June 2 2007.

External links

★ L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH

★ Bösendorfer in photoarchive

★ BosendorferImperial.com - site about the Imperial pianos, with complete audio files of songs, images, etc.