Talk:Carl Bechstein

Carl Bechstein and his pianos
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Steve shelok  honov  04:14, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

History of Bechstein pianos and Carl Bechstein's personal relations with leading musicians
Since the 1860s, Bechstein pianos were played by major concert stars of the 19th century, such as Ferenc Liszt, Von Bulow, Tchaikovsky, brothers Nikolai and Anton Rubinstein, and many other professional musicians. At that time, several competing pianomakers were wooing stars for exclusive concert and touring arrangements, such as the Steinway's arrangement with Anton Rubinstein for his legendary tour of 215 concerts in the USA. However, outside of the USA, and after the tour ended, Rubinstein was free to choose any piano he liked to play, and he often played a Bechstein, thus making Bechstein the piano of choice for many of his students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and ultimately in Russia. In 1890 Bechstein opened their showroom and concert hall on the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg, near the major department stores, Gostiny Dvor and The Passage.

The years from the 1870s through 1914 brought Bechstein their most dramatic increase in sales. In 1880 a second Bechstein factory was opened in Berlin, and the third factory was opened in 1897 in Berlin Kreuzberg. In 1901, the Bechstein Hall opened on Wigmore street in London, offering 300 concerts per year. By 1900 - 1910 production reached five thousand pianos per year, so Bechstein was the largest maker of high-end pianos in the world. At that time about three quarters of production went to international markets, especially Britain and the Commonwealth, and in Russia. Since 1885 Bechstein was the supplier of Queen Victoria. A gilded art-case piano was first delivered to the Buckingham Palace in 1885, then several more Bechstein pianos were delivered to the Windsor Castle and to other royal residences. Many other mansions and salons in London were following the royal example. Several British embassies across the world acquired Bechstein pianos to replace lesser pianos. Also in 1885, Bechstein opened a branch in London, that eventually grew to become the largest showroom and dealership in Europe, and a few years later, opened showrooms in Paris and St. Petersburg.

Bechstein was the official piano maker for the csars of Russia, the kings of Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark, and other royalty and aristocracy. Those vintage Bechstein pianos are still played at private mansions, embassies and diplomatic and cultural missions across the world, and I've been able to play quite a few of those pianos on various occasions. The list of royal clients of Bechstein may be found on the soundboard of each and every vintage Bechstein piano made before the Second World War. Anyone can look at the soundboard of a Bechstein piano to see the list of royal clients, if the piano was properly re-built, the re-builder always tries to preserve the original logo, instead of using the replacement or a modern day replica. The list is part of the original Bechstein logo, it can be seen under the strings in the center of soundboard. Steve shelok  honov  04:14, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Supplier of pianos to Queen Victoria
The earliest warrant intially found referring to Bechstein was for 1887 (see these search results), and it is clear from this that Bechstein were not the sole suppliers, Erard; Imhof and Muckle; and Broadwood are also mentioned, though the warrant is for Harp and Piano manufacturers, and the Gazette search isn't 100% accurate due to the OCR process used. However, I've separately found the list of warrants for 1885 and 1886, and Bechstein is not mentioned in1885), but is for 1886 David Underdown (talk) 13:09, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Erard supplied a harp. Imhof and Muckle made musical clocks and organs (orchestrions). However, Broadwood did supply pianos to British royals, but their pianos were less known outside Britain, then Bechstein pianos. The book of piano sales records was shown to me by someone at the Harrods piano department; as far as I remember there were records about pianos sold to the Royal family, that book may be a good source too. The Bechstein site (click on years 1870 - 1889) specifically mentions the year 1885, when they supplied a gilded grand piano to Queen Victoria.   Steve  shelok  honov  19:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not disputing it's true, but per policies on verfiability and reliable sources independent sources are generally preferred to primary information (although it could I suppose be argued that the Gazette as an official publication is not entirely independent of the British Crown). David Underdown (talk) 19:22, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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