Bösendorfer creates first “Artist Series” piano [NAMM12]

Bösendorfer has announced its Model 200 SPGK “Klimt”, the first in a new line of “Artist Series” acoustic grand pianos.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

This new model features:

• The Klimt model will be limited to a maximum of 25 units
• Each unit will have an individually numbered solid brass plate
• Made in cooperation with the Belvedere Museum, Vienna
• High resolution image of “The Kiss” and through advanced reprographic techniques is on the inside of the lid of our 200 model
• Our craftsmen further customize it by applying additional elements of real gold leaf

Bösendorfer Klimt Artist Series grand piano

That’s all the information we have, but you can see from the picture how special it looks.

A 25 instrument special edition. Bösendorfer. Acoustic grand piano.

How much will it cost? If you have to ask that, you definitely can’t afford it.

Bösendorfer Model 155 SP compact grand piano introduced [NAMM12]

Those wanting the amazing acoustic grand piano experience but in a smaller frame size will be interested to here that renowned piano maker Bösendorfer (owned by Yamaha) has revealed its Model 155 SP.

As model numbers reflect the length of the piano in centimetres, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that this grand piano is 155cms (about 5 foot 1 inch) in length.

Before this, Bösendorfers were a minimum of 170cms (5 foot 7 inches) in length.

Bösendorfer Model 155 SP acoustic grand piano

It’s the first new model from Bösendorfer in a decade, featuring the customary single stringing, separately cast screwed–on capo d’astro and the open pin block on the cast iron plate, resonant case principle with no corner joints as per the model 170, and the same key length as models 170-200.

That’s it. That’s all you’re getting for now. Hopefully we’ll get information about availability in due course.

Sound Magic Supreme Piano 2 includes four stunning grand piano samples

Sound Magic has announced the availability of its Supreme Piano 2 sample pack featuring a rich Bösendorfer, a Fazioli, a Steinway and a Yamaha grand piano.

The Ruby Piano captures the mellow sustain and beautiful tones of a Yamaha C7 built in 1972, which has original ivory keys, and represents its unique timbral quality through Sound Magic ‘s NEO Hybrid Modeling Engine. It is a beautiful sounding and musical piano ideal for pops and Jazz.

The BlueStone Piano has captured the highly resonant wooden body flavor of a vintage Steinway built in 1927 and also managed to represent its unique singing tone through Sympathetic Resonance and soundboard resonant. It is a very emotional piano with great dynamics.

The Imperial Grand virtual piano replicates a famous dark, rich Bösendorfer style of sound, the first modeled Bösendorfer 290SE with 97 Keys!

The sound of Rose Whisper Piano is based on the Fazioli “Brunei”, an exceptional concert grand piano worth over $400,000.00. Fazioli “Brunei” is the most expensive concert grand piano in the world.

Features

• True Piano Dynamic System with flexible controls
• Scala Tuning System enable Supreme Piano 2 users to use different temperaments for their music.
• HD Velocity Layer supports up to 65,536 Velocity Layers!
• Multi-microphone positions enable users to mix between different microphone positions and create new sounds that easily fit into a mix.
• Real Piano Legato make the legato passage so real with a sustianing tone.
• Meticulous Dynamic Response controls enable users to adjust the dynamics of the piano, change the keyboard response, and achieve both realism and playability at the same time!
• New! Our 264-string Sympathetic Resonance System adds beautiful harmonies to both pedal up and pedal down notes.
• Supreme Piano 2 is able to detect repeated notes and activate True Staccato Mode which precisely reproduces staccato notes.
• Built-in professional Reverb Engine simulates resonances with environment and soundboard, adding extra realism to the sound.
• Actual modeling and soft pedal samples vividly present the sound of the 4 pedals.
• Faster load times. Smaller hard drive footprint, less memory and less CPU usage.
• Supreme Piano 2 now provides standalone and VSTi version running under Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7.

Available now for a RRP of US$399. More information from Better Music Distribution.

Steve Jobs: Bösendorfer grand piano fan

Among all the tributes to Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs, came an interesting tidbit from a close friend, Austin technologist Andrew Heller:

After dinner, Steve and I and the baby would sit under the Bösendorfer. When Steve bought the Bösendorfer for Apple, he bought one for himself. So he had two of these nine-foot grands. He would play with the baby under the Bösendorfer when we were working.

It seems that, not just in the field of cutting-edge technology, Steve Jobs had an eye for beauty and function together — something the Bösendorfer encapsulates.

(Via KUT News)

Sound Magic releases Bosendorfer-inspired Imperial Grand software

Sound Magic has made a big splash in announcing its new Imperial Grand software and VSTi versions for Windows.

Based on a rich, dark Bosendorfer grand piano, it uses a patented NEO Hybrid Modelling Engine and Artificial Intelligence Assistance Tool in an attempt to go beyond what many digital pianos (both hardware and software based) can offer.

The AI tool is supposed to help pianists to shape the sound and style of piano they want, without using a lot of technical sound engineer jargon that tends to lead to confusion and frustration.

AI tests the connected keyboard, recording its velocity response and pedal support, and then makes suggestions on how the sound can be shaped to the player’s liking.

The Imperial Grand software includes HD Velocity Layers, claiming to be 500 times more sensitive than the 127 velocity steps commonly found on MIDI controller keyboards. It includes features like adding subtle nuances to notes repeated at the same velocity, helping to remove the ‘flat’ feeling sometimes associated with digital pianos. Notes are melded more accurately during legato passages, improving realism.

Other features include the ability to virtually move microphone positions to achieve a different sound. The 264-string Sympathetic Resonance System adds harmonies to pedal up and down notes. True Staccato Mode more accurately reproduces these notes when played, while a built-in professional reverb engine simulates resonances found in a real soundboard.

Here’s the product page. It costs €99 and comes with €50 worth of add-ons.

Bösendorfer creates Liszt 200th anniversary grand piano

When it’s not creating million dollar piano art, Bösendorfer may be readying limited edition grand pianos to mark important musical anniversaries.

Already creating 27 Mozart Edition pianos, marking 250 years since the birth of the great composer, Bösendorfer is now ready to create unique pianos celebrating Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday year.

Liszt was born on October 22nd, 1811, so they have a few months to perfect the instruments.

Only 25 will be made, finished in black polyester and with gold leaf inlays and a silhouette of Liszt on the music desk. Each piano will be accompanied by a full-size reproduction of a painting entitled “Franz Liszt plays for Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth”.

Existing Bösendorfer piano customers can elect to have their instruments customised.

Via

Piano is ultimate art status symbol

Much as I like my digital piano, it’s really only a substitute for the real thing. I love acoustic grand pianos, and it’s only a lack of space and money — yes, only — that’s stopping me from having one.

Naturally I love the sound and feel, and also the look. However, I’m not sure I’d go so far as to have the body customised.

Yet some are using the grand piano to make an artistic statement.

Steinway & Sons recently created a $1.5m art case piano for a Chinese art collector. Bösendorfer works with artists and architects to style a client’s perfect piano.

“The piano is more than a musical instrument. It is a symbol of sophistication, spiritual and financial wealth,” says Tibor Szabo, whose San Francisco firm restores and sells European art case pianos.

Very high quality pieces can appreciate significantly in value as art itself, though “ordinary” grand pianos, when well looked after, also hold and increase their value after about five years, according to experts.

An art case piano not only is a sublime expression of the musical and visual arts but may be a rewarding personal investment as well, a piece of “living furniture” to be experienced to its fullest (given proper care) even four or five generations from now.

Via

$1.2m jewel-encrusted Kuhn-Bösendorfer grand piano: world’s most expensive?

An amazing fusion between glass art and masterful grand piano construction has created the first limited edition Kuhn-Bösendorfer worth an estimated $1.2 million.

The seven-foot-four-inch black grand piano is inset with over 100,000 hand cut, lead crystal jewels arranged in a glittering array of diamond patterns on the case, lid, legs and fallboard.

It took a year-and-a-half to make and is a “grand collaboration” between L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH of Vienna, Austria and Jon Kuhn, the world’s foremost cold glass sculptor.

“This piano is beyond words,” Kuhn said during the launch event. “It’s breathtaking. We knew it would turn out great, but nothing like this. It’s vibrant. Alive. It’s the first time – ever,” he noted, “that another artist has participated in the creation process, and I most emphatically consider Bösendorfer craftspeople to be artists, true artists. And what a privilege it has been to collaborate with them.”

“Bösendorfer has worked with top artists and designers since the nineteenth century to create uniquely designed, hand-built pianos of unusual visual as well as musical quality,” noted Eric Johnson, the maker’s US operations manager and Eastern regional sales manager. “We’re very pleased with the initial Kuhn-Bösendorfer. And now that we’ve had the pleasure of working so closely with Jon, we’re looking forward with great anticipation to the next one – and the one after that.”

Each instrument will have the owner’s name written on in it gold leaf, embedded deep within the Kuhn-Bösendorfer’s striking crystal fallboard logo.

Kuhn-Bösendorfers are available from $1.2 to $3.5 million, including the flagship 9’6″ Imperial concert grand. Each design will be different.

Check out this video of the grand piano being played by Valentina Lisitsa.

£45,000 grand piano falls off back of a lorry

A concert grand piano valued at around £45,000 (about US$88,000) is said to be wrecked after it fell off the back of a removal lorry in Devon, England. The Bosendorfer was being brought to the home of John and Penny Adie, the organisers of the Two Moors Festival, an annual music event on Dartmoor and Exmoor.

It’s unlikely to be repairable; but is currently in London awaiting an independent assessment of the damage. It was insured for £26,000 – its purchase price at auction – not the full £45,000 it would cost to replace it.

Mr Adie said: “Bosendorfers are like the Stradivarius of the piano world. It’s more than money that is the issue here. They are simply irreplaceable.”

The removal firm declined to comment. Maybe they should’ve read the Piano FAQ.

(Via BBC News)