Difference between Steinway "D" and Steinway "CD"

Mention in another forum topic of the book on Glenn Gould's piano - "A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano" had me searching for the book.

I found a review which, in part, stated "... Gould's greatest obsession of all was for a particular piano, a Steinway concert grand known as CD318 (C, meaning for the use of Steinway Concert Artists only, and D, denoting it as the ...).

What differences exist between a "D" and a "CD"?

"CD"s start as "D"s. One of the primary customers of the S&S factory is the Concert and Artist Department in Steinway Hall. (The Basement). The C&A people take the production D and do (at least some of) the things that other high quality technicians might do to tweak the piano into top condition. Oh, yes, C&A gets to "cherry pick" the factory production, too.
So . . . presumably the pianos will be specimens that are free of significant factory defects and are judged capable of being groomed into concert-ready instruments.

As far as design or anything in the production run, there is no difference.

Wow, I guess a properly prepared S&S gets it's own designation! Seems to me they should spend the time to properly prepare all their instruments.

Just curious, there's a local Steinway D that had gold numbers on the lid. I was told that it was the D that toured with Sinatra, but was kept at Steinway when not traveling. Is that a CD?

Doing concert level prep at any factory would be pointless because it would all get messed up during shipping, and even if it didn't, the end result may not be ideal for the location that the piano ends up in. It would also be cost prohibitive. All in all, Steinway is doing a pretty good job right now... so good that I've needed to find other things to complain about




Presumably

Funny, but Bosendorfer, Bechstein, Schimmel, Estonia, and others have no problem doing thorough prep. and then shipping their pianos all over the world. For a concert they do need some extra help, but I would hardly call their factory work pointless.

I requested my Grotrian be regulated up to concert standard before it left the factory - I was amazed at how good it was on arrival - much better than most high end pianos in dealerships which had supposedly had extensive preparation by the dealer.

There is an interesting book which deals with this very topic.

Piano - The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand
by: James Barron
copyright: 2006
publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

The book follows a single piano through its construction and also addresses the "C" designation, for which the piano was selected.

The book is a good read.

I did not say that!

there's also a good movie that covers the same topic along with thoughts from factory floor workers about what it means to them to work for Steinway. It also spends considerable time following several artist as they go through the selection process of the C and A stock.

"Note by Note. The Making of Steinway 1037" It's on the Netflix Streaming Service. I'm sure it can be had as a disk as well.

Another movie on Netflix Streaming is called "Pianomania" . It follows the routine of one of Steinway's european concert techs as he gets pianos ready for stage and recording. It's in german with subtitles.

Both of these were suggested to me (by Netflix) because I watched "The Pianist" with Adrien Brody.

Kurt

I said that, not BDB. And there is a difference between thorough prep and concert prep. Please don't confuse the two.

CD Model D's have many more opportunities to experience unintended gravitational accelerations.

I hate to chip in here, but I am on the side of the critics on this one. When I go to a Steinway dealer, I find almost nothing I like (ok, not Ds, but Bs and As) and I always get the "we'll prep it for you any way you like". Then when I hear something from Germany or Austria, i think to myself "please don't prep ANYTHING on this, keep it just the way it is!"

A new B was purchased by an institution I know well, from a renowned old dealer, and the thing was gawd-awful. But - it is a Steinway! Now, five years later, they are STILL fixing it, and it is STILL gawd-awful.

None of what I say here applies to Hamburg.

I am not alone in this - I have a friend who is a concert pianist in Germany, and when he comes here to the US to perform he usually dreads the S&Ss he gets to play on. And he owns a Hamburg B! At one prestigious venue he wanted to swap out the new D for my Bösendorfer 200!