Steinway to be sold to the Chinese

[Wowbagger]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-07/billionaire-paulson-said-to-attract-chinese-suitor-for-steinway

This seems to be attracting some concern amongst piano-playing and teaching circles with whom I am acquainted. I don't share those concerns.

I've never been a great fan of Steinway. Their pianos are good, no doubt, but no better than Bechstein in my experience and probably not as good as Bösendorfer. For domestic use, I think it's very hard to beat Blüthner, which tend to be slightly less powerful but have a lovely mellow tone.

What puts me off Steinway is their aggressive attitude towards concert pianists who have the temerity to play something else. Steinway's factories in New York and Hamburg have a massive output - almost certainly the most of any high-quality Western piano manufacturer (I would imagine that Yamaha manufacture more now) which explains their dominance to a large degree.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/514556/SPAT-WITH-STEINWAY-GAVE-PIANIST-THE-KEY-TO-A-NEW-ERA.html

I understand that Bechstein are still German-owned and in the early 20th century they produced more pianos than anyone else.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A change of ownership doesn't mean any change in the instruments though. And though I don't know anything about Steinway's attitude to pianists, I'd say that to the general non-musical public Steinway is something like Ferrari or Mercedes; the one that everyone "knows" is the best. Just as most people could name Stradivarius but many violinists prefer a Guarneri (or something entirely different). Though of course those two are not around to have any attitude to anyone!

[Wowbagger]

Yes, you are right about Steinway being very well known, but that is largely due to the two points I made above - their much greater output than (say) Bösendorfer, who produce about 500 pianos a year from their Vienna factory. The guy who sold me my piano, Marcus Roberts, reckons he sees 20 Steinway grands in and out of his business (he doesn't sell new Steinways, only old good or reconditioned ones) to every Bösendorfer.