Steinway & Sons: the genetics of class

Whether you're a lover of jazz, classical or pop, chances are you've been exposed to the sublime tones of a Steinway & Sons piano.

One of the definitive manufacturers of premium pianos worldwide, few companies can boast the history and pedigree of the firm, which sprang from humble beginnings to become a globally recognised brand, stretching back 160 years.

Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 in New York City by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, a German immigrant who arrived in the New World, bringing his wealth of knowledge as a piano maker in Europe with him.

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After quickly establishing the Steinway brand as one of the world's premium manufacturers of high quality pianos, winning a multitude of awards in the process, Heinrich sent two of his sons back to Hamburg in 1880 to open a second factory and attempt to break back into the European market.

In the 164 years since the founding of the company, the Steinway & Sons brand has consistently experimented, adapting both its pianos and its business strategy to suit the needs of the world's piano players. It now claims to have an instrument for “every requirement, every ability level and every budget”, while remaining “the choice for 98% of concert artists”.

However, despite the prestige associated with the original Steinway range, ranging from bright uprights to lavish concert grands, the firm has long since attempted to dash the notion of financial exclusivity within the pianist community with its two superb subsidiary brands - Boston and Essex - together forming the Steinway Family, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year.

In 1992, Steinway's senior mechanical engineer Susan Kenagy and director Bob Dove unveiled the Boston piano range, designed to capitalise on a gap in the market for affordable intermediate level pianos, while staying true to - as Kenagy puts it - the “Steinway genome”.

The Boston models, manufactured in Japan, share many of the same design features and tonal characteristics with the original Steinway range, and have been praised for their “unanticipated clarity of tone, breadth of dynamic pallet, and their wonderfully responsive action”.

Boston grands, in particular, feature an innovative design that gives a 5'10" Boston piano “the same soundboard area as a typical 6'2" grand piano”, affording the Boston range the “power, richness and feel of playing a much larger instrument”.

More affordable still and every bit as sonorous is the Essex range, originally introduced in 2006 as the entry-level piano of the family. Designed in collaboration with renowned furniture designer William Faber, Essex pianos again carry all the features that create the unmistakeable Steinway sound, with durability and smooth, sleek aesthetics to seamlessly meld, as they say, “form and function”.

As the virtuoso Russian pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy said in 1957, “Steinway is the only piano on which the pianist can do everything he wants and everything he dreams.”

steinway.co.uk