http://www.newyorker.com/online/blo...anists-care-about-the-steinway-sale.html

This is the most important sentence of the article.

Perhaps they will succeed, but hardly here.

70% of Steinway's growth right now appears to be in China.

And they're all Hamburgs...

Norbert

But I thought this was the most important sentence...
"panicked piano lovers have taken to the forums at Piano World, a large online community, to express their dismay."
:-)

No. The most important sentence was "Steve Cohen, a piano dealer and consultant to piano manufacturers, told me that some Steinway fans would have preferred a different buyer."

[Perhaps it all depends on perspective!]

Steve Cohen?

Isn't he that old guy that reaches retirement age tomorrow?

When did they raise the retirement age to ( insert large number here ) ?

OOOHHHH!

That hurt! Touché!

[Good thing you are older than I am. Aren't you?]

Good one Keith.

No Steve, I'm not older than you.
More mature perhaps, but still three years younger.

Does anyone know a good rebuilder for a Frank, Steve, or Keith?

I guess it's about time or they're stringing us all along.

I understand Alice would like to thank Steve Cohen for being her page turner when she was a child taking lessons...

Best. Thread. Evah.

+100

I just watched the Alice Sommer video; she is a wonderful person.

We can only hope for the best in Steinway's future, stay positive and supportive. It must be interesting to takeover production of a product that is under intensive public scrutiny.

Frank is so old.....

How old is he???


He is so old that he remembers Vince Grantano in diapers.

Now, that's old!

FIFY

I see Steve has updated his avatar in honor of his birthday tomorrow (Saturday).

This sentence stood out to me:



That's incorrect, no? I thought the flame was applied to the hammer shanks.

IMHO, the most significant couple of sentences are the following:

“They’re not out there to build pianos that sound the same; that’s what Yamaha does,” he told me. “Yamaha makes beautiful instruments, but the benchmark for success is uniformity.” With Steinway, he said, “you’re getting a high quality instrument, but they have distinctive characteristics that make you choose one over the other.”

Since it depends on one's background, each reader will have a different reaction to the article but in my case, coming from a manufacturing background, the goal has always been to make your product conform to clearly defined specifications. Once that ability has been obtained then you raise or tighten the specifications to improve your product.

When your product does not meet specifications (or when there are no clearly defined specifications) on a regular basis then you often concede that your manufacturing process is out of control. Alternatively, you can claim individuality, uniqueness and character for your product.

I agree that it depends on one's background but it also depends on one's experience and knowledge.
Concert pianists play Steinway pianos more than any other make probably because most major concert halls in the world have a Steinway piano (or two?). And Steinways are not the only hand-made pianos. Fazioli pianos are hand-made and these are now played always, I understand,(in preference to Steinway) by
Nikolai Demidenko and Angela Hewitt. Also, in the latter years of his concert career, Sviatoslav Richter insisted on playing a Yamaha which he took with him on tour.
Yamaha also has a range of handcrafted pianos as does Kawai, and the newly launched British piano Cavendish is also hand-made.
I do not deny that Steinway pianos have distinctive characteristics, but others do too. Yet, whenever I hear Steinway pianos played in concerts they all sound pretty much the same to me. Any differences in sound are generally down to the acoustic of the hall and/or the playing/touch of the pianist rather than to the piano.
Having said all, however, I expect Steinway will continue to dominate the classical concert world for years to come.
That doesn't bother me, but the Steinway sound generally, is not my preferred sound.

rk

I misread this as:

And they're all Humbugs!

It's just Norbert's accent!

Happy Birthday Steve !
Enjoy

Are you saying they need a new set of hammers?

Has the new owner made any statement involving in investing in Steinway, rather than taking profits out. Will any new capital be made available to them to improve manufacturing. I have been told that in the early 1970's highly skilled employees were let go and replaced by junior labor. If that could be reversed things would improve.

Some say this is a long term bet on one of the few elite consumer brands around. Mr Paulson mentioned Mercedes for comparison.

That means the aim must be to increase the capital value of the company by (say) $500 million. That won't happen without striving for manufacturing excellence, as the Paulson team will certainly know.

If you believe in global piano brands, the next candidate could be Bechstein, a snip in comparison with Steinway.

I already went down to the temple and hand-picked a dozen mourners. They don't come cheap these days.

Now, I just have to get enough sack cloth and ashes together before the big day...