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PIANO PLAYS

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It takes over a year to lovingly
hand-craft a Steinway grand piano

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here in Hamburg, Germany.

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It's a hard job to learn
and a lot of teaching,

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a lot of explaining again
and again over years.

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A concert grand piano is nurtured and
tended to throughout its long life.

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Each person has their own skills
and areas that they're good at

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and it's the combination of all of
these that gives us the end product.

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The relationship between instrument
and maker doesn't end

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when the piano leaves the factory.

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In the London workshop,
they are carefully restored

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and maintained with just the same
attention to detail...

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..everyone working with
the same objective...

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..to build an instrument that stands
the test of time.

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The life of a concert piano
begins here

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at Steinway & Sons' Hamburg factory.

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There are over 300 artisans,

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hand-building around 1,200 pianos
each year.

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Steinway is an instrument with
an international pedigree,

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which began when piano maker
Heinrich Steinweg

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moved from Germany to New York
in 1850.

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Steinweg Americanised his name
and formed a new company,

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Steinway & Sons.

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At a time when a piano was the most
desirable object to have in the home,

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there was fierce competition
to make the best piano.

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Pioneering techniques like
rim bending

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were products of America's
industrial age.

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Steinway combined this with
his European design experience

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to form his grand piano's
signature shape.

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The techniques are unchanged today.

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After bending layers of aged
maplewood into a single piece,

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the piano rim is then held in place

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while the glue sets over
a six-hour period.

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Most of the craftsmen and women
in Hamburg

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specialise in a single discipline.

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Gunther Schmitt has been with
Steinway since 1981,

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almost all of his time spent
in the damper department.

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I was very young when I started

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and my plan was to work
five years here.

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After one, I make my master

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and, you see, now I'm here.

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The damper team spend up to
16 hours on each piano.

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Every single damper comes up
when you press a key

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and this is very important to play
like an artist with the pedal,

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with feeling in your feet.

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Operated by the foot pedals,

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the dampers control
the piano's resonance.

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For me, this is a very important
part of the piano.

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It's a hard job to learn
and a lot of teaching,

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a lot of explaining,
again and again over years.

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The intimate knowledge gained over
decades at the Hamburg factory

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is often passed on through
generations of artisans.

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Many of the piano makers stay
with the company their entire
working lives.

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For over 140 years, Steinway has had
a prominent presence in the UK.

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The old workshop is home to
some of the music industry's

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most respected craftsmen.

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As well as looking after
the concert grands,

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they lovingly restore
vintage Steinways,

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giving them a new lease of life.

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This is just like the piano
in the photo, isn't it?

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It takes six years to train
in all the different departments

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and become a fully qualified
piano technician.

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There you go.

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I trained as a classical pianist
at the Royal Welsh Conservatoire

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but I was looking for something
that meant I wasn't...

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The piano wasn't the main focus.

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You know, sat at a piano but...
Do you know what I mean?

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Playing-wise, I didn't want

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playing the piano to be
a main focus any more.

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But I still love the instrument.

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This is just littering the frame,

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so on its own, it will take
probably around about

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three hours or something like that.

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It depends on the complexity.

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If you get an old Style A,
which is around 1800s,

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late 1800s, they have a lot of
writing on the frame

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and they have an extra bar
that goes across with writing on

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and it's all down here as well,

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so that takes a little bit extra.

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The iconic iron frame forms
the spine of this huge instrument.

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Back in the Hamburg factory,

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it is covered over twice with
Polyfilla and sanded down

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to give a smooth finish

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ready for the decorative bronzing
to be applied.

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In their quest for the best
piano design,

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the Steinway family were both
innovators and opportunists.

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Steinway drew on his European
experience as a piano maker

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and the inventions of
some of his rivals

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to redefine the sound of the most
popular instrument in the world.

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By raising the sound board bridges
to different levels,

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cross-stringing onto a single-piece
cast iron frame

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became a Steinway signature.

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This combination of European
innovations

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with the power of Steinway's
cast iron frames

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was the secret to their
early success

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and an important stage in the
development of the modern piano.

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London's Steinway Hall received
its first Royal Warrant in 1890.

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Originally awarded by Queen Victoria,

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it has retained it ever since.

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Ulrich Gerhartz is responsible
for maintaining

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the royal family's collection
of Steinways

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as well as a fleet of Model D
grand pianos,

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often called on for
concerts around the country.

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People never realise how long
it takes to work on pianos

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because they don't realise
it's always 88 notes

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and there's about ten adjustments
per note,

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so there's a hell of a lot of
work to do.

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When you take the piano apart,
people's eyes sort of go "pop".

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Because, of course,

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it's always a unit that is never
actually taken apart,

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very much like people
drive their cars

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and hardly ever look
under the bonnet.

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By going into detail of
how the mechanic works,

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it allows the player actually to
draw more sound out of the piano.

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It's vital to the piano's
performance for all the elements

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under its finely polished lid
to work together perfectly.

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In selecting wood for
the sound board,

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75% of it gets sent back.

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For the tone and sound of the
strings to be amplified effectively,

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it has to be flawless.

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The veneering department houses
two generations of craftsmen

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from the same family.

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These veneers create bespoke
wood finishes,

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special editions for customers
after a designer object

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as much as a musical instrument.

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Piano showrooms
like the one in London

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sell these prestige versions
at a premium.

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When I first started,

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the concert grand was £2,900,

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which was a vast sum of money
when I was on £9 week.

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I'm just off of £9 a week now,

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but the concert grand is
now 138,000, something like that.

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Still this huge difference.

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Wow. Now, that looks more like it.

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An old Steinway piano holds
its value, not just financially

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but also on a personal level.

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My mum used to say,

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"Well, there's always money around

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"and people will always spend their
money on good quality products,"

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and she was proved right.

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As the prices have gone up
over the years,

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the people have still
maintained buying them.

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With vintage pianos being
a desirable product,

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the craftsmen in the London workshop
also buy old pianos

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to restore and sell on.

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They have been known to fetch
up to £120,000.

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PIANO PLAYS

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In contrast to the Hamburg factory,

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where workers focus on
a single discipline,

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the technicians at Steinway Hall
learn how to fix and rebuild

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every part of a piano.

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Jeff Prett worked on his first piano
as an 18-year-old back in 1969.

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After 47 years with the company,

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this is his final week at Steinway.

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This is my work area,
all around here.

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All my tools and bench and so on.

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I've been in this little
corner for the last,

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erm, I can't remember
exactly how long.

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Time sort of slips under the door
very quickly, so...

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There we go.

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You're using your ears
a tremendous amount

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in everyday type of work, you know,

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listening for little noises,
clicks, buzzes and bangs.

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My hearing problems
came a few years ago

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when I was tuning away and all of
a sudden I couldn't hear the top end

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of the piano at all in one ear,

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which I still can't,

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and the left ear is...

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It's these notes here,

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round that area, they all
sound the same to me.

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Times move on.
Nothing remains the same.

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That's the drawing for
the leg plates

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and exactly where we know where
the new leg plate's going to go

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in relationship to the leg.

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And then, when Rob and all these
other people come to do it,

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they know exactly where
the leg's got to go.

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Jeff sort of took me under his wing

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and you can tell
he knows his onions.

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You know, he knows his stuff.

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So, yeah. I was a little bit
nervous, weirdly.

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Does it come up
any better than that?

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That seems darker than that. Yeah?

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It's cos it's more stained.
It's like that.

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Yeah. All right.
I can get it better.

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Well, in that case, you said it.

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JEFF LAUGHS

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He will always do the long-winded,

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proper method that looks good,

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looks right and will work

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over the one that is more
time convenient

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or do the job.

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He'll always do the more...

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the proper fix.

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That's it. That's what we want.

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Excellent.

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As the next generation of
master craftsmen

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start out on their own
musical journeys,

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the Model D grand pianos in Hamburg

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are well on their way to becoming
the finished article.

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A pianist relies
on their sense of touch.

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The regulation department are
all about meticulous attention
to detail.

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Here, they make sure every key
has the same action

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and the response is consistent
across the whole keyboard.

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The texture and flexibility
in the hammerhead

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ensures every note of the piano has
the widest possible range.

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Wiebke has been at Steinway
for over 36 years

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and oversees quality control.

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She checks the sound of
every instrument

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before it leaves the factory.

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Any chance I get, I play.

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I stay behind after work

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and usually stay behind for
a few hours

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and just, yeah, get a bit of
practice in.

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It's not a bad practice room,
to be honest.

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Once I started work,

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piano playing in the workshop was
highly frowned on, so...

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There to work, not play.

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If you want to play, you go to
the College of Music,

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so there was that.

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It takes over 12 months

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and 12,000 parts to build
a Steinway Model D piano.

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Once the instrument is complete,

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it is ready to take centre stage.

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All the painstaking months of
hard work

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now lie in the hands of Ulrich,

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who works closely with many of
the world's leading performers.

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The pianos only really prove
their mettle when they go on stage.

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The nice thing is that it combines
craft with a whole musical side

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with a side of working with
people who are artists.

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It's very much like being
a conductor

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that conducts the orchestra
of the piano

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and makes sure that all the sections
play together

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rather than sort of individual.

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World famous pianist Lang Lang
has worked with Ulrich

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since his Proms debut in 2001.

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All ready! This is the piano you
know. 131. This one's great. Yeah.

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You need to always work with
the best, you know,

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friend, basically.

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You know, with the piano technician,
we became so close because

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they work with musicians so closely
and we make the change together.

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The relationship between pianist
and tuner is crucial,

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not only getting the most out of
the instrument but also the venue.

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Do we have a little bit of the
acoustic thing

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or is it a natural sound?

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No, they will...
You see the mic rows?

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So they have a little bit of
amplified? Yes.

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'You see the guys over there? When
you want more, they'll tell you.'

248
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:59,920
Yeah, so from the middle C is
a little bit dry, the sound.

249
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:02,560
You think so? Yeah.
Maybe the keys, I don't know.

250
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,560
It just felt a little bit thick.

251
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,160
Do you want me to add a little
bit of reverb to make it feel...?

252
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:10,360
Yeah, just a little bit from
middle C. OK. No problem.

253
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:29,520
To stay in the same job for
47 years is a pretty
remarkable achievement.

254
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,760
Nowadays, in our world of
zero-hour contracts,

255
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,120
the average stay in one job is
apparently about four years.

256
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,880
Just how many pianos has Jeff
improved over these years?

257
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,800
Just how much goodwill has
this likeable

258
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,960
and brilliant technician
created for Steinway?

259
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,160
APPLAUSE

260
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,560
Skilled men and women
spend their lives

261
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:57,680
hand-making these beautiful
and complex instruments.

262
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,400
Every minute, every hour, every key

263
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,280
and every note

264
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,080
to create something more than
just a mere object.

265
00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:20,360
It creates an experience.