The topic of which pianists play Steinway, Yamaha, Fazioli or artist testimonials pops up up from time to time on the piano forum. Can anyone put names to the 'artist' faces on the Bechstein website?

http://www.bechstein.de/engl/EKultur/EKultgo.html

Names don't seem to be supplied. The last on the bottom is Steven Osborne (who records on a Steinway); I think the second in the middle is Olli Mustonen, but am not sure. As for the rest...

Andrew:

Right click: properties. It will reveal all.

The only one I recognised from the face alone was Osborne.


David

Definitely Lazar Berman on there.

I thoughtthat was Lazar Berman (top row, second from right), then confirmed it with a right-click.

Thanks.

Here's a list of Bechstein Artists. Andras Schiff recently chose a C. Bechstein 280 Concert Grand for the Berlin Philharmonic.

Alberto Nosè

Denys Proshchayev

Vitaly Margulis

Konstantin Lifschitz

Volker Banfield

Stephan Hohlweg

Lazar Berman

Florian Uhlig

Duo Villarceaux

Michael Roll

Steven Osborne

Claudius Tanski

Markus Pawlik

Sheila Arnold

Andreas Bach

Duo Aglaia Bätzner / Cristina Marton

Das Baynov-Piano-Ensemble

Martin Berkowsky

Tatjana Bucar

Andrej Diev

Thomas Duis

Michael Endres

Matthias Fuchs

Das Genova & Dimitrov Klavierduo

Anna Gourari

Grigory Gruzman

Friedrich Höricke

Heidrun Holtmann

Maria Ivanova

Igor Kamenz

Matthias Kirschnereit

Das Kölner Klavierduo

Roberta Pili

Cèsar Rangel

Yuri Rozum

Vladimir Stoupel

Antti Siirala

Homero Francesch

Konstantin
Scherbakov

Alexei Volodin

Daniel Röhm

Vladimir Krainev

Boris Bloch

Martin Helmchen

Jakub Cizmarovic

Pavel Gililov

Beatrice Berthold

Yu Kosuge

Michael Endres

Sergey Kuznetsov


Jonathan Biss


Evgenia Rubinova

Valerij Petasch

Alexander Ghindin

Irvin Gage

Anthony and Joseph Paratore

Anatol Ugorski

Arcadi Volodos

Fazil Say

Christian Blackshaw

Wibi Soerjadi

Michaela Ursuleasa

Roberto Cominati

Alexander Madzar

Rudolf Buchbinder

James Levine

Eva Kupiec

Fujiko Hemming

Susanne Kessel

Jens Thomas

Bobo Stenson

Ken Ara

Bernd Glemser

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Alfredo Perl

Kira Rathner

Maria Littauer

Alexander Mikhailov

Wolfgang Manz

Geoffrey Tozer

Eugene Mursky

Sheila Arnold

Oleg Poliansky

Henri Sigfriedson

Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy

Michael Rudy

Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Pietro de Maria

Steven Osborne

Bätzner/Marton

Stenzl&Stenzl

Genova/Dimitrov

Tobias Grau und Götz Schumacher

Choong-Mo Kang

Dae-Jin Kim

Young-Ho Kim

Enrico Pace

Rolf Plagge

Stanislav Bunin

Anika Vavic

Martin Stadtfeld

Guoda Gedvilaite

Xiaohan Wang

Boris Giltburg

Andras Schiff


Sally Phillips
Director,
C. Bechstein America

Thanks, Sally. An impressive list - but then Bechstein has a pedigree that is second to none.

Good old Schiff! Few of today's great players have been so vocal in extolling the colours that non-Steinway pianos can bring to the music.

This list is a bit confusing. Some of these people are also on the "Steinway artist" list (e.g., Volodos).

Do these lists just mean that the artist receives a bit money from the respective company (i.e., it means nothing at all) ?

Klaus

Klaus - a quick diff (actually sed awk and grep ) shows 29 on both sites...am not entirely sure this is accurate:

Anatol Ugorski
Andreas Bach
Arcadi Volodos
Beatrice Berthold
Bernd Glemser
Boris Bloch
Christian Blackshaw
Claudius Tanski
Cristina Marton
Homero Francesch
Igor Kamenz
James Levine
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Jonathan Biss
Konstantin Scherbakov
Maria Littauer
Markus Pawlik
Matthias Kirschnereit
Michael Roll
Michaela Ursuleasa
Rolf Plagge
Rudolf Buchbinder
Thomas Duis
Vitaly Margulis
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Krainev
Vladimir Stoupel
Wolfgang Manz
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy

Impressive line-up of artists, including past Bosendorfer Artist Roberta Pili. Are there any Jazz artists on the roster?

I would never choose a particular make because of certain names endorsing it.

First off, these guys only play and have in mind 9'concerts something which leaves me clueless as to the make's smaller sizes.

Second, just because someone famous puts his name on a brand doesn't mean I would "agree" as a private consumer. I'm the one buying and paying for piano - not that guy.

Thirdly: it's all bogus. All top tier makes offer fabulous concert grands and unless someone spent days to compare them side by side, there is no real "choice"

Forthly: many artists wavered between different brands during their career.

Richter, Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock: there's many more...

Good luck in your own choice!

Norbert

Many Artists, who are managed by IMG (the successor to Columbia Artist Management (CBS) who owned Steinway for a while)are contractually obligated to play Steinway in the USA but not in Europe or Asia. Many choose to use instruments more to their personal liking when not obligated and perhaps some what you are seeing is due to this discrepancy.

Yet you endlessly mention how you just sold such and such a piano to a terrific pianist, piano teacher, etc.

me too.

I love when 'terrific pianists' buy my pianos.

And they don't have to be called Lang Lang...

Norbert

I've never really understood the Brand X Artist endorsement concept. As Norbert pointed out, a concert grand prepped for performances to the artist's specifications is a completely different animal than a grand bought by the majority of piano buyers. I guess it's like sports endorsements. Just because I eat a certain cereal or buy a certain sandwich doesn't mean I can swim, ski, or play basketball like an Olympic athlete. Just because I buy a Steinway or a Bechstein doesn't mean I'll suddenly be able to play like Valentina. But I guess that's the secret little dream we all have.

It is good to know that piano makers support pianists and if the artist endorsements help sell their instruments, that's a good thing.

I'm still wondering what buying the same underware as an NBA star is supposed to do?

Piano makers support pianists because it helps them sell pianos.

If underware is similar to hardware, it might offer exceptional support.

Although few individuals purchase concert grands, I think there is in general a strong correlation between the tonal characteristics and general quality of a maker's concert grand and their smaller models.

This is particularly true in the top tier instruments.

I wonder how many people bought Baldwin because of Libarce and Lawrence Welk? It seems funny that when they died, so did Baldwin.... coincidence? Hmmmmm!

Wurlitzer, Kohler and Campbell and Kimball went another way with their "endorsements", they put their instruments on game shows. Their "artist" endorsements were people like Bob Barker and Pat Sajack.

Not sure which pic your talking about. But the one guy looked like my uncle Harry.

Steve and pianoloverus - it's good to know that the quality characteristics that some piano makers use for their concert grands is carried into their pianos designed for home use. Thanks.

I think what I'm seeing is different. I see an alphabetical list which one clicks. However the text is perfect. It says here are artist who have played or recorded on Bechstein...not those who have committed their lives, their children and estates to Bechstein! The real question is: how many of these artists realize their image is included here? The maker could argue: "but you DID play Bechstein here (and here..) but the artist may say "OMG somebody else hears about this, I'm cooked!"

It is really the way it should be. An artist lends their image/endorsement to 2 or 3 makers with whom they feel a particular artist affinity.

The real life challenge is this: consumers don't know what a piano should sound like and don't trust their own judgement. They want to feel good about a large purchase and artist endorsements help. The problem is with the decline of interest in classical many of these names don't mean much to the general public!