Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Pleyel closed down.

"Pleyel, the storied French piano manufacturer whose instruments were once favored by Chopin and Ravel, will close its workshop after two centuries of production,"

Link to the NY Times article: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/storied-french-piano-manufacturer-to-close/

One of the revelations of my life as a pianist was playing on a mid-19th century Pleyel. The sound was marvelous, unlike anything available today. It is difficult to describe, but it was a more compact, mellow, personal sound, rich with personality, and not like the big brassy sounds we routinely hear today. I hope this factory can survive, and that the aesthetic of firm does not die, whether or not this particular firm survives.

Sad sad news! Everyone is feeling the pinch.

Thanks Jonathan,

I always hate to see any piano manufacturers close down.
According to the article on The Telegraph (UK) they were the world's oldest continuously operating piano company.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...no-maker-Pleyel-shuts-last-workshop.html

World's oldest piano maker Pleyel shuts last workshop
Pleyel, the French piano maker and world's oldest still in activity, to shut last workshop in Saint-Denis in symbolic blow for France's struggling industry

Pleyel, the world's oldest piano makers still in operation and the favourite of Frédéric Chopin, are to shut their last workshop in a symbolic blow for the once mighty flagship of French artistic savoir-faire and industry.

Since Ignaz Pleyel, an accomplished composer-musician and friend of Joseph Haydn, launched his first French manufacturing plant in 1807, the brand has continuously produced pianos for more than 200 years.

It was Pleyel who introduced the upright piano to France, who first used a metallic frame in his pianos and invented the sound known as "sustained".

His pianos' rich, velvety tones charmed Chopin, for whom Pleyel was the official piano supplier, but also a host of illustrious names including Liszt, Debussy, Grieg, Ravel and Stravinksy.

Many of the 250,000 Pleyels built in the past two centuries still furnish countless French homes, while the Salle Pleyel, designed to showcase them, is Paris' most prestigious concert hall.

Yesterday I posted something similar in the Piano Tuners-Technicians Forum. Eighty views and counting as I write this, still not even a symphathy card of sorts.

I guess they(piano techs)don't really love pianos as they pretend to.

HW

You have found the truth!

They don't like pianists much, either.

Maybe partly due to the fact that they have been mostly closed down for quite a few years if I remember correctly, so this is not really news. They are not listed in the latest issue of PB. I think they were only making a handful of piano per year for some time now.

I wonder if this could have come about because they had a mediocre product, no marketing and terrible management?

Nah, probably not.

Probably just the demise of Western culture.

Very sad news.

I have always wanted to play a Pleyel ever since I first read about them in "The Piano Shop on the Left Banke" by Thad Carhart. This is a wonderful book, btw, about an American ex-pat, living in Paris, who discovers the beauty and magic of a secretive, little piano shop in the Left Banke. Definitely worth the read by anyone who loves pianos and a great story.

The Pleyel I played was at its best as a salon instrument - suited to the acoustics of a living room. Every major piano maker I know voices their instruments quite LOUD and too often pianists are forced to practice at all times with the lid entirely shut, with the music rack sitting on top of the lid.

But the Pleyel was voiced perfectly for a living room with a non-violent attack and not the garish over-kill of sound. Unlike so many modern pianos, the Pleyels were never intended to be placed in nightclubs where they would have to compete with the ice-grinder at the bar for auditory domination, nor were they intended to accompany 30 rowdy children in a school choir.

I feel about the Pleyel the way I feel about certain vintage sports cars: can't they just rebuild these again? They were great as originally designed.

Sad indeed.

As some of you know, I was involved with Pleyel,twice.First while with Geneva. Secondly when I retired, I worked with them trying to get them restarted in the U.S.
I knew they had an impossable task ahead when the Pres. told me their plan of attack was to raise the price of pianos and make less of them. That would make them more profit.
Add to the problem the fact that not one American Finance company would touch them. (Floor Plan).
As someone said above, they really were out of business for a few years. They closed the factory in Ales quite a while ago. Have been "working' in a small shop outside of Paris.

I got a free trip to Paris and to Provance out of it.

I will say though, it was one heck of a piano.

Very sad to hear that MM.

I've spent enough time in the Piano-Tuner-Tech Forum to know that they also don't like each other very much. There is sometimes, constant, endless quibbling about nothing.


HW

True, HW. They're not a very well tempered group.

I came across a story about this a couple days ago. The description made it sound more like they had been a service/repair shop in recent years. Sad nonetheless, when the longest operating [anything] shuts down.

Someone will probably buy the name and start putting it on imported pianos (or does that only work with German names?).

LOL - That was a good one!!

May I add, full of inharmonicity, just like my spinet!!



Cheers, HW

Mine is a very nice guy. Haven't seen him posting much on Tuner/Tech lately, though.

A shame about Pleyel. They did so much for the development of the modern piano. And, as J. Baker very truly observed, they were voiced for playing in the home--- an aspect badly neglected by many more recent makers. Maybe it was because the hearing aid had not been invented in their day, and they did not wish to deafen their customer base. Of course, that is just a guess.

Those posting on the Technicians Forum are no more inclined to disagree/argue than those posting on any other forum. In fact, I'd say they are far less inclined to argue. For a long time the forum did not even require a moderator(not sure if it has one now).

I've known a large number of piano techs, and I found them all extremely interested in pianos and also in their customers (pianists).

Actually, Pianist Corner is worse.

(But, they gleefully enjoy the rancor.)

Please, don't get me wrong.
As an aspiring piano tuner, I am very grateful to all who make the Piano-Tuner-Tech Forum an encyclopedic source of information. But, there is no denying that there is a pervasive "I am better than you" mentality, hand in hand, of course, with a lot of camaraderie.

Well, time to stop burning bridges and just say a final farewell to Pleyel, for sure, one of the most beautiful sounding pianos I ever had the pleasure to play.

HW