The story of this piano begins long ago, in mid 19th century Russia and is related to J. Becker piano manufacture in St. Petersburg.
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Mid 1800s was the first time Russia experienced all out Western sanctions. Import of machinery and many goods from Europe was virtually halted. In response Russian government created tax conditions and subsidies that allowed those entrepreneurs who decided to try making it a success in Russia fill comfortable. Business faulk of all trades started pouring into Russian Empire setting up small and big factories of all kinds. Germans, Italians and French people became very rich very fast. The field was open, but the borders closed. At that time Russian piano building business was in its infancy, merely trailing and copying European innovations. But almost overnight several major talents arrived and settled factories, primarily in St. Petersburgh. These were J. Becker, Schroeder, Diederichs Brothers, Muelbach and many others. J. Becker had major head start having established piano making facilities in 1840s. He patented many innovations at a time which allowed him to prosper early on and get ahead of competition. One of his inventions (Under tune pin block) is totally forgotten now because of complications of manufacturing and maintaining the instrument but gave instrument an unreally sustained and rich sound. It is hard to realize that within few short years Russia became the world leader of innovation in piano development.
Bechstein was a true leader of innovative European piano production at a time, while Erard was the most established "conservative" manufacturer of straight strung pianos that set the standard of sound at the time. However, a dangerous competitor to those appeared in St. Petersburg. Becker pianos were of exceptional quality and quickly became favorite of all artists such as Liszt, Busoni, Hoffmann. A. Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky became the first "Becker Artists". Yes, the branding artists was invented by Becker, Steinway simply took the ready idea later.
Fierce competition between manufacturers produced the most unreally sounding examples. In my next videos I will show you some of instruments from those times... TBC
26 сен 2024
