The Duke of Brunswick personally purchase a Steinweg piano for 300 talers and master Heinrich no longer has to worry about the strength of his reputation. After making 482 pianos and advancing to become a sought-after manufacturer, the lean years suddenly set in. Famines, bad harvest and customs duties cripple trade.
Steinweg looks for a way out and therefore sends his son Karl to New York. The boy is supposed to find out whether the country of unlimited possibilities holds similar prospects for the Steinweg family. Karl’s forecast is extremely positive-he implores his father to make the courageous move to the New World.
On May 19, 1850 53-year-old Heinrich Steinweg, his wife and his children embark on their long voyage from Hamburg. Six weeks later the family lands in New York. The city is big, and the neatly clad, bow-tied gentlemen is uncertain. Unable to read or write, will he be able to find his feet here? As competent workers, luck is on their side. Heinrich and his sons find work with an American piano maker. The Steinwegs know their trade, they are hard-working and their pianos are of high quality. But the rewards are low and so, on March 5, 1853, they again risk founding their own business. “Build the best possible piano,” instructs the father who Americanizes their name in the following year. Heinrich Steinweg is 57 when he renames himself Henry Steinway. Steinway & Sons benefit from the spirit of the age.
In America, the most popular instrument is the piano. The first Steinway piano to be produced, correctly numbered 483, is sold to an American family for 500 dollars-it now stands in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Demand and profits continue to increase, the original premises soon become too small. Steinway & Sons moves to the district of Queens in 1860, the year that the piano makers from Germany beat all their American competitors for the first time. In Queens the company still manufacturer pianos in one of the largest factories in the whole of New York. Time seems to have stood still: grand pianos are still made by hand, and it often takes over a year to produce one instrument. So, it is hardly surprisingly that present-day prices start at 40,000 dollars.
Parallel to their progress in America, the Steinway also secured their market lead in the old continent and was appointed as suppliers of European monarchies, the German and Austrian emperors and the Tsar of Russia. Recalling its family roots in the 19th century, Steinway again set up a factory, this time in Hamburg. This company now sells about ten percent of its piano in the family’s old home country.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Steinway Piano (part 1)
Steinway-a resounding name: pianists and composer throughout the world love it. It stands for the finest quality and expert crafting, for concert grand and luxury-class pianos. And nothing has changed for 150 years. Steinway grand can be found in the world’s great concert halls, everywhere between Tokyo and New York.
But the Steinway story had its beginnings in the tiny town of Wolfshagen in the Harz mountains in the central Germany, on that bitterly cold day in 1797 when Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg was born. Little Heinrich, the youngest of twelve children in he family of Steinweg the forester, is slightly different from the rest. Of delicate build and highly musical, he is not exactly suited to his father’s kind of work. He thinks of becoming a carpenter-yes, that would be more to his liking. But first of all his country calls, and he dutifully goes to war.
Instead of a rifle he is armed with a bugle which he blows on June 18, 1815 at the legendary battle of Waterloo. And while his fellow soldiers are cleaning their weapons, Heinrich sits in camp skillfully making zithers and mandolins.
The war ends and Heinrich Steinweg returns in mourning. All of his seven brothers and his father have lost their lives in the war. As the only remaining man in the family he now bears heavy responsibilities. He begins his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. His dream is to build musical instruments, but the strict rules of the guilds prevent this. Heinrich finds work in an organ builders’ workshop and decides to learn to play the organ. He spends every one of his rare free moments practicing until he becomes a church organist. All men are equal in the eyes of God and the rich and the poor meet at church. Heinrich Steinweg is still one of the poor when, one day, he catches sight of a charming young lady, Julianne Thiemer, who comes from a prosperous family. In February 1825, he married the love of his life. The happy groom has thought up something very special as a wedding present: he proudly presents his first Tafelklavier. A square piano of the highest quality secretly constructed in months of meticulously work.
The Steinweg marriage is happy-and fertile. Their first son Christian Friedrich Theodor is born on November 6th in their wedding year. In the following years, Juliane has four more boys and two girls while Heinrich steadily earns the money needed for the growing family. Ten years after the wedding he fulfills his lifelong dream and opens his first piano workshop in Seesen in the Harz mountains.
But the Steinway story had its beginnings in the tiny town of Wolfshagen in the Harz mountains in the central Germany, on that bitterly cold day in 1797 when Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg was born. Little Heinrich, the youngest of twelve children in he family of Steinweg the forester, is slightly different from the rest. Of delicate build and highly musical, he is not exactly suited to his father’s kind of work. He thinks of becoming a carpenter-yes, that would be more to his liking. But first of all his country calls, and he dutifully goes to war.
Instead of a rifle he is armed with a bugle which he blows on June 18, 1815 at the legendary battle of Waterloo. And while his fellow soldiers are cleaning their weapons, Heinrich sits in camp skillfully making zithers and mandolins.
The war ends and Heinrich Steinweg returns in mourning. All of his seven brothers and his father have lost their lives in the war. As the only remaining man in the family he now bears heavy responsibilities. He begins his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. His dream is to build musical instruments, but the strict rules of the guilds prevent this. Heinrich finds work in an organ builders’ workshop and decides to learn to play the organ. He spends every one of his rare free moments practicing until he becomes a church organist. All men are equal in the eyes of God and the rich and the poor meet at church. Heinrich Steinweg is still one of the poor when, one day, he catches sight of a charming young lady, Julianne Thiemer, who comes from a prosperous family. In February 1825, he married the love of his life. The happy groom has thought up something very special as a wedding present: he proudly presents his first Tafelklavier. A square piano of the highest quality secretly constructed in months of meticulously work.
The Steinweg marriage is happy-and fertile. Their first son Christian Friedrich Theodor is born on November 6th in their wedding year. In the following years, Juliane has four more boys and two girls while Heinrich steadily earns the money needed for the growing family. Ten years after the wedding he fulfills his lifelong dream and opens his first piano workshop in Seesen in the Harz mountains.
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