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BÖSENDORFER

Flying Bach: The Well-Tempered Culture Clash

Interviews: Yuko Hisamoto/Valentina Lisitsa

New Grand Piano Model 155

The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria N0. 6 | December 2011

Postage paid | Publisher’s post office: 1010 ViennaL. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH, Bösendorferstraße 12, A-1010 Wien, mail@boesendorfer.com, www.boesendorfer.com | If undeliverable, please return to sender© Photo: Ray Demski/Red Bull Content Pool

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

The great pianist and composer Franz Liszt wrote more than 40 letters and telegrammes to his close friend Ludwig Bösendorfer, and he was a proud owner of several instruments by the Viennese piano manufacturer. On the occasion of the composer’s 200th birthday, Bösendorfer has issued the Liszt Anniversary Grand in a limited edition of 25 instruments.

The Liszt Anniversary Grand – a Homage to Friendship

L I S Z T & J A P A N

Although Franz Liszt was born in 1811 in Raiding, only about 100 kilometres from Vienna, as far as it is known it was

in 1846 that the celebrated virtuoso and star first played on a Bösendorfer. On March 28 of that year, Franz Liszt played his memorable concert “with the full array of his great talent, so fiery, powerful and captivating, in a mood so excited and hap-py that the audience erupted into unbroken enthusiasm. (...) This time, he made use of the famous Bösendorfer instrument that was exhibited (...), whose supremeness on this thrilling evening only really proved itself tonight. Not only its beauti-ful, full sound asserted itself under such masterful hands, but also the strings and tuning held up competently all the way to the end, which after three such concert pieces and at the level of energy with which Liszt seizes the piano, is no mean feat” (Heinrich Adami in the Allgemeine Theaterzeitung of March 31, 1846). This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship that developed between Franz Liszt and Bösendorfer.

In today’s Hungary one can often find old Bösendorfer up-right and grand pianos, among them two instruments that

were in Franz Liszt’s possession: A concert grand 2.45 metres in length received a medal at the 1862 World Fair in London.

There is also a 1.87-metre, seven-octave Bösendorfer grand in the Liszt memorial museum that is straight-strung, with a Vi-ennese action. Liszt used this piano in his apartment in Pest up to his death in 1886.

In commemoration of the ingenious piano virtuoso, com-poser and conductor who is also considered the “inventor”

of the solo recital, Bösendorfer designed a special limited edi-tion piano that is marked by numerous gold leaf ornaments and elements typical of 19th-century style. A silhouette of Liszt is located on the music rack and each of the 25 grand pianos has an individually numbered brass plate with the artist’s signature engraved on it.

The piano has been presented at numerous events in hon-our of the artist, such as in Tokyo on July 4 of this year. A

total of 43 journalists, publishers and music dealers accepted the exclusive invitation to the Austrian embassy. The concert by Japanese pianist Yuma Osaki was introduced by the Aus-trian ambassador Dr. Jutta Stefan-Bastl with a quote from Liszt: “The perfection of a Bösendorfer exceeds my wildest expectations.”

(Right to left): Pianist Yuma Osaki, Hiroo Okabe (Managing Executive Officer of Yamaha Corporation), Ambassador Dr. Jutta Stefan-Bastl, Simon Oss (Bösendorfer Sales & Marketing Director) and Mitsuyoshi Kimura (Sales and Marketing Manager of Bösendorfer Japan Group), at the presentation of the Liszt Anniversary Grand model 185.

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Dear Reader!

Editorial

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E D I T O R I A L

Imprint · Editor, media proprietor, publisher: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH, Bösendorferstraße 12, A-1010 Vienna, Tel. 01.504.66.51-0 · Design and layout: FineStudiose. U., Vienna. Produced and printed in Austria. Distribution: self-distribution to Bösendorfer friends and interested parties. Editorial office address: L.Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH, Attn.: Monika Frank, Gymels-dorfergasse 42, A-2700 Wr. Neustadt. Senior editor: Monika Frank, Simon Oss. Authors: Ferdinand Bräu, Hans Czihak, Anne-Sophie Desrez, Monika Frank, Isao Ito, Brian Kemble MBE MA, Mit-suyoshi Kimura, Univ.-Prof. Giuseppe Mariotti, Simon Oss, Rudolf Plank, Mag. Stefan Radschiner, Yoshichika Sakai, Dr. Peter von Seherr-Thoss. Photos: Bösendorfer Japan Group, David M. Peters, FineStudiose.U., Dr. Peter von Seherr-Thoss, Alexei Kuznetsoff, Dirk Mathesius/Red Bull Content Pool, Rentz/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool, Ray Demski/Red Bull Content Pool, Jerzy Piotr Rojecki, Akira Muto, Giuseppe Mariotti, Seeste Bau AG/Roland Rudolph, Dr. Rupert Löschnauer, Zdenek Chrapek, David M. Peters/Mozarthaus Vienna. Cover: Ray Demski/Red Bull Content Pool. Translation: Albert Frantz. Primary direction and disclosure according to media law: Magazine for persons interested in music and friends of Bösendorfer in Austria. Errata and printing errors, etc., including price quotations, excepted. No liability is assumed for unsolicited pictures and manuscripts submitted. Reprints permitted exclusively upon written consent of the publisher. All rights reserved. Contributions marked by name present the author’s opinion, not always that of the publisher. No legal action will be countenanced for sweepstakes.

The Liszt Anniversary Grand – a Homage to Friendship ...................................................................... 2Editorial · Imprint ................................................................................... 3Interview: Yuko Hisamoto .................................................................... 4Wiener Neustadt’s Twin City of Harbin Acquires Two Bösendorfer Grand Pianos ..................................... 62011 Bösendorfer Piano Competition ............................................. 6 Piano Music Docs – Bösendorfer Piano Courses for Doctors ........................................ 7Interview: Valentina Lisitsa ................................................................ 8Bach – Breakdancing – Bösendorfer – The Well-Tempered Culture Clash ................................................. 10

HABSBURG reloaded ............................................................................ 12Concert Activities in Poland .............................................................. 12Bösendorfer Artist Relations ............................................................ 13Julius-Jeongwon Kim Japan Concert Tour ................................... 13New Grand Piano Model 155 ............................................................ 14Touch and Action .................................................................................. 16Renting a Bösendorfer ......................................................................... 17A Memorial to a Rejecter of Memorials ....................................... 17The Liszt Path in Raiding ................................................................... 18“Prague Spring” International Music Festival ........................... 18“You Have to Be on Fire…” ................................................................. 19

Contents

This is my first editorial, having been appointed Managing

Director in March 2011. Let me re-peat what I said at that time: “it is a tremendous honour for me to be entrusted with such a gem of the piano world. My goal will be to use my 30 years of experience within the piano industry to drive the company forward by working tirelessly with my dedicated Aus-trian staff to further strengthen the position of Bösendorfer. We have some exciting new models in the pipeline and a clear vision of the future. The long tradition of Bösendorfer – the foundation of European sound – will continue to be re-spected and built on”.

I am pleased to report that we are now benefiting from the re-organisation that was completed in 2010 , and have seen

a significant increase in our sales around the world.

We hope that you enjoy this issue with a range of arti-cles about people, events and product. We have inter-

views with Bösendorfer Artists, Valentina Lisitsa, and Yuko Hisamoto. We have a story about Red Bull’s Flying Steps dance group- who combine Bach, Breakdance and Bösendorfer, and is on tour in Europe with great success right now.

There are stories about our rental fleet activities, and our new series of lunchtime concerts in Bösendorfer Saal

(Mozart House, Vienna). Read about Piano Music Docs – a successful project of piano tuition in Vienna with a special emphasis on doctors. Univ. Prof. Giuseppe Mariotti of the To-kushima Bunri University has kindly contributed an article on piano touch and the piano action. Read about our new Bösendorfer model 155 and about some concert and compe-tition activities in the year 2011. There is information about other events, like the opening of the Friedrich Gulda Park in Vienna and Artist Centres; and, finally, in the year of Liszt’s bicentenary, of course there is a short historical story about the longlasting friendship between the outstanding artist and Bösendorfer. Incidentally our limited edition of 25 Liszt pianos to commemorate this anniversary has been very suc-cessful – only three remain to be sold!

Thank you for taking an interest in our company – I invite you to share our passion.

Brian Kemble, MBE MAManaging Director

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

I n t e r v i e w

In addition to numerous CD recordings, Yuko Hisamoto has published several books on Mozart research (including “Re-

search on Mozart’s Piano Music and How did Mozart Play”). As a pianist, she is the recipient of the Sonoda-Takahiro Prize and the Mainichi 21st Century Prize. In addition to her con-cert activity, she works as a professor at the renowned Kuni-tachi College of Music and is a board member of the Latvian Institute of Music in Japan. In an interview with Simon Oss (Bösendorfer), she discusses her life as a pianist, her inter-est in Mozart, as well as her very special relationship with Bösendorfer.

BÖSENDORFER: What memories do you have of your first en-counter with a piano?Yuko Hisamoto: I remember very clearly how beautiful it was when my first piano, a Yamaha, was delivered. I was three years old at the time. My grandmother played the koto. Dur-ing my childhood, I often listened to my grandmother and mother play music and then I imitated the folksongs and dances on the piano. Actually, I also wanted to learn to play the koto on the side, but the hand movements turn out to be completely different, so I therefore decided to concentrate on the piano.

BÖSENDORFER: You have already played in the presence of the Emperor and Empress. What significance does this have for you as a Japanese?Yuko Hisamoto: It was my great honour for me to have the opportunity to play in the presence of the Japanese royal couple, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. The Empress first played, then I did. Afterwards, the Empress asked me sev-eral questions, with great interest, such as how to produce a beautiful tone. This was, of course, a very special moment. Thanks to the piano – it was a Pleyel from 1840 – I received this honour. The Empress is a music lover and plays piano very well herself. And she even received a Bösendorfer grand piano as a wedding gift and loves to play it.

BÖSENDORFER: You have taught piano, chamber music and repertoire at the Kunitachi College of Music for some time. Why did you choose to teach in addition to your active concert life?Yuko Hisamoto: Everything started about seven years ago, when the director of the university attended one of my concerts. She listened with great interest and then offered me a position as associate professor. She definitely wanted an associate professor who was not only a pedagogue, but first and foremost an active pianist. Yet at first I didn’t want to take on this position since I wanted to concentrate 100%

A Human WarmthThe pianist Yuko Hisamoto plays over 60 concerts per year in her native Japan as well as abroad. In addition to performances with numerous orchestras, such as the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Japan, and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, she plays numerous chamber music concerts with ensembles such as the Berlin String Quartet and the Sawa Quartet.

on my activity as a pianist. Of course, I then deliberated for a long time and a friend of mine, who is a clarinet profes-sor himself, said to me, “A good musician need not be a good pedagogue, but a good pedagogue must be a good player.” These thoughts resonated with me and this is how I decided to accept the pedagogical position.

BÖSENDORFER: You have also written several books on Mozart. Where does your love of this composer come from?Yuko Hisamoto: The mystique of Mozart and his music – that’s of course a limitless field. Yet what is really interesting to me is his sketches and paraphrases. Reading what’s be-tween or behind the notes, the deeper meaning, discovering or engrossing oneself in the spirit of Mozart – that’s really interesting.After Mozart came, of course, numerous composers who used lots more notes and complicated, multifaceted harmo-nies. Yet Mozart continues to be unique. How he was able to create music of an entirely different character with just a few notes and even with a unique change in tone!In Japan, there are lots of books on Mozart. However, Mozart is mostly simply revered in these books and people feel that

Yuko Hisamoto plays over 60 concerts per year. She performed in the new Bösendorfer Hall on 17 February 2011.

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Mozart is holy and untouchable. I wish to present another portrait of Mozart, though. Of course he’s a genius, yet his predecessors and contemporaries need to be taken into consideration in order to understand Mozart. For example, Joseph Haydn’s Sonata, Hob. XVI:23, very strongly influenced the first six of Mozart’s piano sonatas. Mozart’s Sonata No. 2 is even in the same key, F major. However, although this same key underlies both sonatas and there are many similarities, when playing both sonatas you immediately have the feel-ing of Mozart, which is highly personal and independent of Haydn. The melodic and harmonic construction is well be-yond that of Haydn in some passages. The dynamic markings are almost absent in Haydn, yet with Mozart every little nu-ance is clearly written out.

BÖSENDORFER: At Bösendorfer Hall, you played Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata in addition to works by Mozart. What do you find especially interesting about this work?Yuko Hisamoto: Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata appears to me to be the most mature of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas. Of course, the later sonatas, such as Op. 111, are practically a world cultural heritage. Yet from a historical perspective, shortly before the “Waldstein” was completed, Beethoven wrote his will in Heiligenstadt, the Heiligenstadt Testament. At the time, he had already faced death once and I feel how the composer looked back upon his entire life up to that point and put his whole spirit into this work.And whenever I play this piano sonata, I always feel a strong human spirituality. Not only the compositional structure, but really the strength of the person despite all obstacles and dif-ficulties. He is deeply affected by his disease, yet he pushes through this obstacle and goes on with his life. The second movement ends on G and the third movement begins with this note. Yet while I primarily feel sorrow, pain, hopelessness and total desperation in the second movement, everything is overcome in the third movement, and rays of sunlight break through the mist.

BÖSENDORFER: You are also a historical instrument specialist. Where is your interest focused?Yuko Hisamoto: I am highly interested, for example, in a pi-ano by Walter, which is an instrument that was contempora-neous with Mozart. Due to this sound and the piano’s action, I feel the aesthetic thoughts with which Mozart composed this piece at the time. I’m best able to realize these aesthetic thoughts on a modern Bösendorfer grand. Back then, the touch was of course completely different, and the key depth was also a lot shallower. You only had 5 or 6 mm of key depth at the time. Today it’s about 10 mm. The action was also much finer compared to today’s instruments, and it’s thereby much easier to play ornaments and trills in the style of Mozart’s era compared to the modern piano. Of course, the modern piano is far superior in terms of dynamic differentiation or colour spectrum, yet this fineness and ease that was preferred dur-ing Mozart’s time are much more difficult to implement with the modern piano. Whenever I play a historical instrument, I learn from its specific feel to make due with modern instru-ments, and that’s very exciting.

I also own a historical Bösendorfer from 1828–1829, which was thus built by Ignaz Bösendorfer himself. I’m always in-spired by this piano; in it I feel the extensive and great tradi-tion of the art of piano building. This aesthetic tradition that Bösendorfer has inherited and the endless continued devel-opment that this manufacturer has simultaneously made is something that fascinates me. Owning this very old grand piano is an indescribable feeling. I also own a Bösendorfer model Johann Strauss from 1911 and a Bösendorfer upright piano. I’m fascinated by the true Viennese tradition of sound, with its beauty.

BÖSENDORFER: You recently also acquired a new Imperial. How would you compare your piano from 1828–1829 and the various instruments from which you just selected?Yuko Hisamoto: Of course we experience technological changes; for instance, we no longer drive with a horse and carriage but rather with express trains, cars and airplanes, or even into outer space with rocket ships. Yet through music, when listening or playing, we always seek the inner feelings from the depths of our heart and evoke them. Bösendorfer pianos can do this especially well – they best match my playing. This time, I had four different Imperials from which to choose, and all of them were true individuals, yet all four had something wonderful in common: they speak directly to the human heart. Of these various Imperials, one was re-ally sensitive, with lightness, another had a very tight sound, yet all are spiritual instruments and these differences make them all the more interesting. That’s how you recognize handcraft.

BÖSENDORFER: You had your own private concert hall built for your latest grand piano. What motivated you to do this?Yuko Hisamoto: I played the “Waldstein” Sonata in Bösendor-fer Hall most recently. To me, this piece represents the idea of my own hall, the close connection to nature. I custom-built my hall out of purely natural products (wood and stone) es-pecially for the Imperial and the acoustic design was made by Mr. Minoru Nagata, who was also responsible for the acous-tic design of Suntori Hall. The hall is 70 Tatami carpets large and is located in the mountains of the Nagano prefecture, yet it doesn’t serve any commercial purpose but is rather a private matter. You could present a small salon concert with 50 to 70 people there. I’m not interested in commercial or financial matters. My head is filled 100% with music.

BÖSENDORFER: What is your opinion on the different sounds and varieties of touch of the various manufacturers?Yuko Hisamoto: I find the instruments of some manufactur-ers to be like Formula 1 race cars, with unbelievable speed and power. In a large hall with orchestra and 2000 concertgoers this probably has its advantages. The sound travels far and wide through metallic effects, yet it also sounds like a ma-chine. Yet with Bösendorfer you feel more of the warmth of the human body. The finest feelings, nuances and simultane-ously unbelievable depth and colour variation are possible. I can even express the smallest sentiments with it. That’s why the Bösendorfer is my best friend, my beloved.

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

M i s c e l l a n e o u s

The northern Chinese city of Harbin has over 10 million re-sidents and is one of China’s most important cities cultu-

rally. Amongst other things, it is the first city in the country to have founded a Western orchestra, and Harbin was officially named China’s “City of Music” by the United Nations.Already during an initial visit by Bösendorfer and Wiener Neustadt Mayor Bernhard Müller’s delegation this past Ja-nuary, Harbin showed interest in purchasing a Bösendorfer concert grand for the Harbin Concert Hall. Over the course of a later visit for the purpose of deepening cultural and eco-nomic relations the city disclosed its decision to acquire an additional Bösendorfer grand piano for the Children’s Palace.On June 13, the Wiener Neustadt delegation was at last re-ceived in the Shangri-La Hotel by Duo Lin, Mayor of the city of Harbin, as well as other well-known representatives from the twin city. During his address, Mayor Lin emphasized the city’s especially close relationship with Wiener Neustadt, and subsequently, the contracts for the acquisition of both Bösendorfer instruments were ceremoniously signed.Simon Oss declared, “The acquisition of both of these grand pianos is very significant to our company. The support of the city of Wiener Neustadt was essential and in the course of

The selection of the 3 finalists were the very famous and demanding piano concertos of Tchaikovsky (No. 1),

Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and Beethoven’s Pia-no Concerto No. 5. Several pianists who have gone on to be-come prominent performers, including Alexander von Zem-linsky, Alexander Jenner, Walter Klien, Hans Petermandl, Ivan Eröd, Rudolf Buchbinder, Doris Adam and Christoph Berner, have previously won this competition. Now, the young pianist Vakhtang Jordania of Georgia takes his place among this pro-minent list. On this evening, he was the last to take his place on the beautiful stage of the Schönbrunn Palace Schlossthe-ater and played Beethoven, accompanied by the Pro Arte Orchestra of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He can now be excited about the main prize worth 17,000 euros, donated by Bösendorfer. The decision was a very tight one, incorporating as they did the results of the previ-ous rounds. In second place was Suhrud Athavalaus of India with Tchaikovsky, and third place went to Soo-Jin Cha of Korea,

who played the Schumann Concerto. The Bösendorfer Piano Competition was started by Ludwig Bösendorfer in 1889 as a contribution to promoting young talents and students.

From left to right: The finalists of the 2011 Bösendorfer Piano Competition – winner Vakhtang Jordania of Georgia, Soo-Jin Cha of Korea (3rd place) and Suhrud Athavalaus of India (2nd place)

the discussions another important step towards additional acquisitions was taken.”

During a visit by a delegation of Wiener Neustadt Mayor Bernhard Müller, the Chinese city of Harbin signed contracts to acquire two Bösendorfer grand pianos, thus reaching a milestone for the economic and cultural relations between the two cities.

The results of the Bösendorfer Piano Competition were announced on November 30 at the Schönnbrunn Schlosstheater. Participants competed with works by Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Beethoven. The winner, Vakhtang Jordania, is from Georgia.

Wiener Neustadt’s Twin City of Harbin Acquires Two Bösendorfer Grand Pianos

2011 Bösendorfer Piano Competition

Simon Oss (Bösendorfer Sales and Marketing Director), Yan Shi (Bösendorfer representative in China) and Frau Xiao Ping Yang (Director of the Office of Culture, Press and Publishing in Harbin) during the signing of the contract.

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M A S T E R C L A S S

It also turns out that there are many Bösendorfer enthusi-asts in medical circles. What could be more natural than to

offer a piano course especially for doctors, right in Vienna, the music capital of the world? Conducted by medical doctor and concert pianist Wolfgang Ellenberger, the first Bösendorfer piano course for doctors took place between August 25 and 28, 2011. The courses began with an opening dinner in the beautiful atmosphere of the new Bösendorfer Hall in the Mozarthaus Vienna on Thursday evening. Already on the first evening, every participant was able to demonstrate his or her current ability on a Bösendorfer grand.

The next day began with a comprehensive tour of the Bösendorfer piano factory in Wiener Neustadt, which dem-

onstrated to all participants how the “touching Bösendorfer sound” comes about. “The stacks of cast iron frames, the wood in the temperature-controlled rooms, the spinning and wind-ing of the strings combine to make not only an instrument from which one can elicit notes – it makes for a living being.”

At the beginning of the master class, Wolfgang Ellenberger explained how the body’s motor function is transferred

to the piano’s touch mechanism. The lesson methodology, based on a medical/scientific background, was deepened with daily individual lessons. In addition to the self-evident professionalism, the fact that Ellenberger was able to at-tune himself very personally to the participants’ prior knowl-edge was also convincing, and thereby highly encouraging

and motivational. “Very personal mentoring (notes, level of knowledge),” “Highly dedicated, immediately realisable,” “The course did a lot for my piano playing and gave me enor-mous motivation” were some of the comments received as feedback.

Yet the participants did not only receive renewed impetus from the intensive individual lessons and improve their play-ing. They also had the opportunity to try out the instruments and above all to practice undisturbed – at the Bösendorfer factory, at Bösendorfer Downtown in Vienna’s Musikverein, as well as at Konservatorium Wien University. While teach-ing and practising continued to take place non-stop over the two subsequent days, in between, and of course during the evenings, the cultural surroundings of the global musical metropolis of Vienna could be explored.The closing concert on Sunday afternoon, which again took place in Bösendorfer Hall in the Mozarthaus, formed the unforgettable climax of the master classes. A couple of sur-prise guests amongst the field of musical medical doctors increased the unavoidable stage fright of the performers.Happy and relieved, all participants enjoyed a farewell drink and resolved not only to recommend the course to col-leagues, but to return to Bösendorfer and Vienna, etc., for the next course. A young doctor from Finland wrote in retrospect, “It was really great here. Everyone was so nice and interest-ing. The piano lessons were extremely helpful, and I am now highly motivated to continue playing the piano and also to practice. I already look forward to returning to Bösendorfer to see everybody again and to select my grand piano. As a mat-ter of fact, since my return I’ve been telling my colleagues about the courses, and many of them are also very interested in coming.”You can stay up-to-date on the Bösendorfer Piano Docs piano courses at docs.boesendorfer.com, where reports and photos are available, as are the announcement and registration form for the next courses.

There is hardly another occupational category in which interest in music and culture is so widespread than in the medical field. Around a third of doctors are active musicians, and many of them play piano.

Piano Music Docs – Bösendorfer Piano Courses for Doctors

Opening dinner in the new Bösendorfer Hall

Piano playing skills were polished during one-on-one lessons.

Tour of the Bösendorfer piano factory

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

I N T E R V I E W

A highlight of her 2012 concert schedule will be the perfor-mance at Royal Albert Hall June 19. With more than 30 mil-lion channel views, Valentina Lisitsa is one of the most popu-lar classical artists on Youtube. In an interview with Simon Oss she gives a very personal insight into her life as pianist.

BÖSENDORFER: Ms Lisitsa, how did you decide that you want-ed to become a pianist?Valentina Lisitsa: Well, I started playing piano in a very par-ticular way. I was three years and eight months old. But my parents were not musicians and before piano they tried me with several other things, hoping like all parents to find the genius in their child. The first was ballet but it didn’t quite work out. I was three but I was tall and to put it mildly, I was plump, not your typical Ballerina. So I was brought in front of this very important lady, a great ballet teacher, and she just looked me up and down and told my Mum: “So you want me to teach ballet to this child. Look how she stands up, look at her feet.” And she just started laughing. Well that was quite a disaster and of course I just remember the terrible embar-rassment. Then I went to take swimming lessons but that didn’t work out either.Finally one of our neighbours told us about this programme for young kids to learn piano. And my parents thought: Well, that’s something relatively safe. And it also happened that we had an upright piano. It was a bright orange shiny piano, a brand named Ukraina, which actually I thought was a good piano and I was very sad when it was sold.

BÖSENDORFER: You also wanted to become a chess player, is this correct?Valentina Lisitsa: Yes! Basically when I started learning piano it took me less than half a year to be ready to play a recital, so I was doing quite fine. But playing music for fun and pleasure turned very quickly into this competitive thing. Everybody had to participate in competitions, but there is no fair way to judge. It is very subjective. Is it best if you play fastest, clean-est, the most amazing jumps on piano…? And there were not only objective factors, but also, who was your teacher and all these dirty things.So I got attracted to chess because it was a very clean cut. If you are better you win, if you are not so good you lose. I could compete and I knew when I’m going to win and when I’m go-ing to lose. Also when I got involved in chess there were these famous Russian chess players, Karpov and Kasparov. Kasparov was an underdog and so much down, everybody lost hope. And then he came from way behind and won, despite every-thing being against him. That was my greatest inspiration. That you can actually be underdog and that you can win, no

matter how bad your situation is. But then I started to get more into the non-competitive side of music, going more into the beauty of music rather than competing with music, just playing for myself and for the audience. At that time my fasci-nation with chess just went away.

BÖSENDORFER: You were born in the Ukraine but are now liv-ing in the US. Where do you feel at home and how do you see yourself?Valentina Lisitsa: When I left the Ukraine I just tried to get as far as possible away, and US just seemed far enough. I didn’t know anybody and it was just like a new planet. That was in 1995. The only thing I have kept from Ukraine is my accent (laughing). Also I have to admit a weakness: I always love to come to Europe, because I enjoy the history and I do feel at home there. But my home is actually airports. I play about 80 concerts a year. Ideally the travel should be smooth; you go from country to country.Actually I love travel but it is not for sightseeing as I never have chance to. I think my worst experience was when I was playing in Luxemburg a couple of years ago. Although I spent three days there I don’t know how it looks. The car drove when it was dark and there was an underground park-ing garage directly connected to the concert hall. There were vending machines in the parking garage, that’s what I saw for three days: Sitting in the concert hall, practising and eat-ing out of vending machines.

With her multi-faceted playing described as “dazzling”, Valentina Lisitsa is at ease with a vast repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to Shostakovich and Bernstein. Previous highlights include debuts with the Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, WDR Cologne, Seoul Philhar-monic, San Francisco Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony; and collaborating with conduc-tors Manfred Honeck, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, amongst others.

Valentina Lisitsa – Insight into a pianist’s life

Outstanding pianist Valentina Lisitsa

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BÖSENDORFER: With regards to playing piano and perform-ing: What would you say about the words pleasure and hard work?Valentina Lisitsa: You know, everything is pleasure now, even practising. It gives you a kind of sadistic pleasure (laughing). And especially because I’m such an exhibitionist. Last year I worked on 75 pianos pieces of Chopin. Many people ask me “How do you practise?”, “How do you learn a new piece?”, so I put a camera in my studio and for two weeks I was learn-ing new pieces in front of millions of people that could log-in any time and see how I progress. And they were of course surprised because they discovered that I do really practise 13 hours a day. Learning a new piece is like science. It’s very ex-citing and very difficult to pull yourself away and go to sleep. I wouldn’t call it work, it’s a discovery.

BÖSENDORFER: Did new media such as Youtube change your life as an artist or is it just an “extra”?Valentina Lisitsa: I have had over 30,000,000 views, add-ing about 50.000 every day. It was a life saver for me – I was nowhere. In the Soviet Union they only taught you this old world ethic. If you work hard and just do your stuff, you are eventually going to make it. Just like in movies with good endings. So I was playing good concerts, I did my best, but I did not promote myself. And that’s the biggest mistake and the biggest difference. At the same time where I was playing other people constantly promoted themselves and I was at the losing end. “The best pianist nobody knows” wrote one newspaper. A lot of music is done now with promotion and it’s all a little bit fake. Even if people record compact discs nowadays. First there are like 800 takes, then they are cut into little slices, every note is cleaned, singers are “after tuned”, then there is reverb, all kind of beautiful things, so it comes out as a beau-tiful polished CD which has nothing to do with life. And then of course you get a beautiful photograph to go with and a photo-shopped image, all these beautiful glamorous stars. And I was trying actually to go against it and to be as genuine and as honest as possible. In a way I think this is what people like in my Youtube videos. So when people ask “What’s your secret about it, how is it done?” I say: “Well, just be yourself”.

BÖSENDORFER: Your husband Alexei Kuznetsoff is also a pia-nist. Is it sometimes hard to be two pianists living together?Valentina Lisitsa: I think it’s difficult, because look, there are better combinations, maybe piano and millionaire (laugh-ing). You know when somebody is actually making the living. No, but joking aside: yes it works fine, because we are also coaching each other, able to criticise, able to look profession-ally at things. We are two musicians; both love music and dis-cuss things in a professional way.

BÖSENDORFER: You have more than forty concerti in your rep-ertoire and play often with other soloists such as Hilary Hahn. Are there sometimes fights concerning proper interpretation?Valentina Lisitsa: Of course yes. It’s depending very much with whom you play. We are in the business of deciding what the composer meant. And it’s very difficult. For example we

don’t know how Mozart wanted his music to be played and we don’t have any recordings. But let’s say Rachmaninov – we have his own performances and they are so very different from what he wrote. Sometimes you wonder do you do as he said or do you do as he played (laughing). And of course if you get two performers working together or three or even a hundred, things can get quite heated. But all for the benefit of music.

BÖSENDORFER: As a world famous pianist, how do you feel about music critics?Valentina Lisitsa: When I was starting to perform I was told how important music reviews were, and I was influenced quite a lot, by both, positive ones and negative ones. I remem-ber this kind of incident; it was quite a few years ago. I thought it was the best concert I had ever played and the audience just reacted correspondingly: I got the biggest ovation and then I got a horrible review! It was written that I was bending the piano, that I was playing too fast. I thought it was so unfair, I was actually depressed for a long time. After that I was play-ing for a year really with slow tempi and it did quite a lot of damage. Finally I overcame it and I realized what happened. And since this point, frankly, I don’t read reviews, no matter if good or bad. BÖSENDORFER: Famous painters often have a quite unique style which they are well known for. How do you feel as a pia-nist? Do you think technique permits you to play everything or is rather a certain specialisation needed?Valentina Lisitsa: Now there is more a specialisation because of marketing. It’s not because people can play or cannot play something. And once people are put in a niche, it’s very hard to break out. Like for example for me it was very hard – and still sometimes it is – to get out of this image “She is Russian, she has a Slavic accent, she is blonde, so she is good for Rus-sian music.”But as you mention painters, it is important to have different colours. Your hands need to be able to colour all kinds of mu-sic. And that’s an art which is very difficult to acquire. And Bösendorfer is just going to make your job a little bit easier. Mozart, Chopin, Liszt is just amazing! Having (on the Imperial) just these few extra strings which gives you just the right amount of reverberation. This piano was by the way also put in the frame of “Viennese Classic” un-fairly. Rachmaninov, Prokoviev and Chopin for example also feel wonderful on Bösendorfer. I like its different sound, it’s much clearer than other pianos. It has an incredible clarity and distinctions between voices, it lets you play polyphoni-cally. It’s not just separation between accompaniment and melody, but you can get much more in terms of voices. Also I feel totally at home with this touch. It’s just perfect for me. All piano actions are different and you know some are more forgiving, but this piano lets you change your sound what is very important for me. There are many pianos that are made to sound generally good. They are good, they have a little forte, a little pianissimo, everything is fine. But a Bösendorfer sings. My two Bösendorfers are not instruments or tools for me, they are living creatures.

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

F L Y I N G S T E P S

The international classical world turned upside-down

Those who succeeded in getting hold of one of the highly sought-after tickets were able to get an idea of what it

is like when the worlds of Bach and breakdancing clash. As artistic director, the opera conductor responsible for the en-tirely novel combination of high culture and urban art, Chris-toph Hagel, accompanied the tour on a Bösendorfer, with pi-ano soloist and répétiteur Sabina Chukurova on harpsichord. “What we’re attempting here is to bring breakdancing into the holy halls and Bach to youth on the street,” Christoph Hagel said – an attempt that seems to have been decidedly successful. That classical music can be combined with mod-ern street culture in such a way is something you have to ex-perience to believe.

Flying Steps

Founded by Vartan Bassil in 1993, the Flying Steps are a group of breakdancers who have already won several breakdanc-

ing world championships. They run the Flying Steps Academy dance school in Berlin. Vartan Bassil is also the choreographer of the Red Bull Flying Bach dance performance.

Red Bull Flying Bach – ready for take-off!

The dance performance with which the Flying Steps are currently touring Europe is called Red Bull Flying Bach.

Dancers fly again and again during the 70-minute show – spectacularly defying gravity seems to be part of the pro-gramme. That the music of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach is made accessible to a broad youth culture is only one side of this outstanding coin; the other side is that a “classic” audience gains insight into ghetto style peppered with breath-taking dance inserts.Prelude and fugues were analysed and studied note by note – 18th-century sound meets 21st-century beats.That older classical music lovers can be thrilled by something that also fascinates young hip hop fans is a rarity in the cul-ture industry.

Dress code tip

Our dress code recommendation for this dance event is hat, evening attire and sneakers.

When Johann Sebastian Bach composed his collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard in the 18th century “for the benefit of and use by studious musical youth” and for “special diver-sion,” he could hardly have thought that a group of breakdancing world champions would be interested in a dance adaptation of his work more than a quarter of a millennium later.

Bach – Breakdancing – Bösendorfer – The Well-Tempered Culture Clash

Breakdancing or contemporary dance: Red Bull Flying Bach is ready for take-off.

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2011/12 Red Bull Flying Bach European Tour

The European tour from August through December 2011, in which the audience witnessed a novel dance inter-

pretation of the first 12 preludes and fugues from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, led the Flying Steps with their Red Bull Flying Bach show through Austria, Den-mark, Germany, Switzerland and Turkey. To be able to get an impression of this show’s outstanding success, one should realize that in Germany alone, over 30 additional dates had to be added to the four regularly scheduled performance dates. The choreographer Vartan Bassil points out the show’s border-crossing nature: “It’s about dance, about music, and that’s international. That’s really what’s great about this pro-ject. Love, conflict, sadness, fun appear and these are things everybody understands.”

The best of everything

Christoph Hagel mentions an additional recipe for suc-cess: “Bach was a great synthesist – he took what he

needed from Italian composition, from entertainment mu-sic and from religious music, and we’re doing the same here, too.” Those used to getting the best from everything won’t fail to notice Bösendorfer as a constant accompaniment to the tour.

The Flying Steps artists (in the photo is dancer Lil Ceng, who was born in Macedonia and grew up in Saarbrücken) again and again ignore the law of gravity for astonishingly long periods. The Japanese ballet dancer Yui Kawaguchi enriches the dance performance with classical inserts.

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“That’s the dream: Bach becomes street art; breakdancing be-comes art.” (Christoph Hagel)

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

C u l t u r e

The 2011 festival took place at four locations in Habsburg and European territories: Zakopane (Poland/Galicia, former

Habsburg crown land), Vienna (Austria / core of the Habsburg monarchy), Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany / former Further Austria) and Rottenburg am Neckar (Germany / former Fur-ther Austria).

During this European tour, pianists Michal Bialk and Cezary Kwapisz performed works for two and four hands on

Bösendorfer pianos. The programme consisted of both clas-sical piano music and literature, and dealt with not only the complement between these two areas, but also the friction between music and texts. The piano pieces presented works from the 19th and 20th centuries, marked by the influences of manifold musical styles of Habsburg provenance. The pro-gramme ranged from Chopin and Szymanowski to de Falla and Khatchaturian, via Liszt and Strauss. As a reference to ‘local he-roes’, pieces by Paderewski (in Zakopane), Mozart (in Vienna), Weismann (in Freiburg) and Hoffmeister (in Rottenburg) were also included. The literature part offered scenic readings from

Concerts, competitions and master classes on Bösendorfer instruments took place in the country’s famous acad-

emies of music, in Bialystok, Szczecin, Gdansk, Katowice and Bydgoszcz. In Lodz, one of Poland’s most successful artists, singer-songwriter Grzegorz Turnau, thrilled his audience on a Bösendorfer.

International Piano Duo Competition in Bialystok

The International Piano Duo Competition took place in the Chopin University of Music in Bialystok already for the fifth

time. The presenter expressed a desire for two pairs of grand

pianos that were tuned exactly to one another. For the pre-liminary rounds, Bösendorfer provided two model 225 pianos and for further rounds two Imperial concert grands. The out-standing coordination in playing together also affected the piano technicians present in their preparations of the pianos, the technicians Janusz Paszek from Katowice and concert technician Hans Muff, who travelled from Vienna. The most impressive performance in terms of pianistic teamwork was by Yoo Jaekyung and Yoon-Jee Kim from Korea, whom the jury declared the competition’s winners at the finale at Podlaska Philharmonic Hall.

the inner life of the Habsburg dynasty, anti-Habsburg texts and dialect poetry saturated with the Habsburgs’ attitudes towards life. The programme thematised the Habsburgs’ re-gional, yet paradoxical relation to the performance site and its history. According to the festival’s presenter, Dr. Roland Hahn, the festival is intended to be ‘a revival of Central Europe’s cul-tural heritage for today’s generations’.

‘HABSBURG reloaded’ is the name of a festival dedicated to the cultural-historical metamor-phosis that built a cultural bridge between European peoples from the 15th to the 21st century.

In 2011, the Austrian piano manufacturer showed powerful signs of life in Poland.

HABSBURG reloaded

Concert Activities in Poland

Jaekyung Yoo and Yoon-Jee Kim won the 5th International Piano Duo Competition in Bialystok.

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A R T I S T S

In order to give full support to artists, Yamaha maintains a global network of expert piano technicians as well as artist

relations specialists based at Artist Services located around the world. From this year on, Bösendorfer pianos are also rep-resented at some of these centres. Bösendorfer pianos are located at several Yamaha Artist Services, including locations in Paris, New York, Moscow and Seoul.In addition to Bösendorfer’s traditional artist support at their downtown facilities in Vienna, Bösendorfer pianos are now being made available for artists in many of the world’s other major musical destinations. And through this service the relationship between the Austrian manufacturer and these international piano artists is becoming even closer.

The latest Yamaha Artist Services to begin carrying Bösen-dorfer is located in Seoul, Korea. Many renown artists,

among them Bösendorfer Piano Competition prize winner Julius Kim, participated in the July 2011 opening ceremony for the Bösendorfer presence at the facility.

Julius Kim began playing piano at a very young age, quick-ly succeeding in the Korean National Piano Competition,

studying at Yewon School of Music and Arts in Seoul. From age fourteen he lived and studied piano in Vienna, becom-ing the youngest piano student at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. In 1997 he won first prize at the Bösendorfer Piano Competition. Kim finished his studies in Vienna, and was admitted to the Conservatoire in Paris. He played as a soloist at Wiener Konzert haus, recorded several CDs and played in concerts with world-famous conductors all over the world.

In October 2011 he made a concert tour in Japan, playing Liszt, Beethoven and Chopin on Bösendorfer.

Preparing this programme he thought about the disaster of the earthqake and the Tsunami that hit Japan this year. Every piece he selected is dark, and death is near. However, he thinks it isn’t only despair but also wants to send condolences and consolation to the people who suffered in the disaster.Julius Kim always prefers Bösendorfer: “Bösendorfer is my natural choice. It is very nice to control Bösendorfer produc-ing colourful sound.”

Cooperation with selected Yamaha Artist Services

Remembering the people suffering from the earthquake in 2011

Bösendorfer Artist Relations

Julius-Jeongwon Kim Japan Concert Tour

Bösendorfer pianos are located at several Yamaha Artist Services all over the world.

Julius Kim always prefers Bösendorfer. © by Akira Muto

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

F A C T O R Y

The design concept:

Total focus on our traditional Bösendorfer quality features is as relevant to the conceptual design of the new model

as it is for our existing range of models. This holds especially true for the resonance case principle, which is decisive for the special sonic properties of Bösendorfer instruments. The unique variety of colours and the special warmth of the tim-bre have distinguished the Bösendorfer sound since our be-ginning in 1828.

At the same time, the concept has been developed in order to incorporate a high degree of state-of-the-art

manufacturing technologies. For the construction of individ-ual components, 2- and 3-dimensional construction design drawings were produced with CAD-assisted design software. This precise data can be used for the production process by CNC machining centres that are employed both in machin-ing the cast iron frame and in wood processing during the manufacture of the piano’s body and case parts. This meth-od is already used by Bösendorfer in manufacturing, yet for

model 155 the proportion of CNC-assisted production has been further expanded and refi ned.

An absolute innovation has been the making of the cast iron pattern, including the mould equipment, with the

aid of a constructive 3D model, for manufacturing the cast iron frame. This pattern was developed by our own construc-tion department in accordance with the foundry’s specifi c requirements. Both the cast iron pattern, which had to be made from hard wood larger than the fi nished size (given the shrinkage factor of cast iron), and the mould equipment, had to be milled with exceptional precision by our proprie-tary CNC wood processing centre.

Despite the increased use of modern manufacturing technologies, the proportion of handcraft in manufac-

turing the grand piano is and remains dominant. Our ex-perienced instrument builders’ exceptional know-how and fl air is irreplaceable in many areas of manufacturing. Only the symbiosis of craft skills and modern technology results in a sound concept for the highest-quality, yet cost-effective, manufacturing of a Bösendorfer grand piano.

Constructional details: Length: 155 cm · Width: 151 cm · Keys: 88

The string diapason is divided into four sections, whereby the lowermost six choirs of the middle register use cop-

per-wound strings as in the bass. This is a successful method of compensating for the limited length ratios. The strings are single-strung, as is customary with Bösendorfer. The sepa-rately cast, screwed-on capodaster, and the open pin block are a must for the new model.

Sonic characteristics:

The model 155’s sonic potential, given its compact dimen-sions, is remarkable and is optimally assisted by the reso-

nance case principle. The familiar Bösendorfer sound is even present in the bass register and contributes to the piano’s exceptionally balanced sound. The expression “baby grand” is really only applicable to the 155’s external dimensions – the grand piano is in no way a “baby” in terms of sonic possibili-ties.

New Grand Piano Model 155For the fi rst time in ten years, Bösendorfer has decided to design a brand new grand piano model. The new instrument is aimed at the grand piano segment under 170 cm in length. With the new 155 cm grand piano, Bösendorfer can expand its product range by offering an instru-ment in a highly compact size.

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

the symbiosis of craft skills and modern technology results in a sound concept for the highest-quality, yet cost-effective, manufacturing of a Bösendorfer grand piano.

Constructional details: Length: 155 cm · Width: 151 cm · Keys: 88

The string diapason is divided into four sections, whereby the lowermost six choirs of the middle register use cop-

per-wound strings as in the bass. This is a successful method of compensating for the limited length ratios. The strings are single-strung, as is customary with Bösendorfer. The sepa-rately cast, screwed-on capodaster, and the open pin block are a must for the new model.

Sonic characteristics:

The model 155’s sonic potential, given its compact dimen-sions, is remarkable and is optimally assisted by the reso-

nance case principle. The familiar Bösendorfer sound is even present in the bass register and contributes to the piano’s exceptionally balanced sound. The expression “baby grand” is really only applicable to the 155’s external dimensions – the grand piano is in no way a “baby” in terms of sonic possibili-ties.

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Action:

So that no compromises are made in the instrument’s playability, the same key length was used in the 155 as for

models 170 through 200. A thoroughly proven and technical-ly mature action geometry is thereby available. The piano’s optimal playability is thus guaranteed and it can meet the highest demands of any pianist.

Case:

Externally, the new grand piano appears in typical Bösen-dorfer garb. Due to its compact size, the body exhibits

no corner joints – like the model 170. The shapes of the case parts, such as the music rack, fallboard, lid, etc., are identical to those of the standard models.

Commercial launch:

The new grand piano model will be introduced to the pub-lic for the fi rst time at the upcoming NAMM show in Los

Angeles in January 2012. The fi rst deliveries are planned for May 2012.

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The new grand piano model 155 – a genuine Bösendorfer in terms of sound and shape

New offspring at Bösendorfer: The new grand piano model 155

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

Mechanical Matters

Inside the piano, the key movements are amplified by a fac-tor of 5. For notes played at a forte dynamic, the hammers

can already hit the strings at a velocity of up to 5 m/s. It is no mean feat to surmount these extreme velocities and forces correctly and in the spirit of the music.Since composers’ soundscapes demanded building ever-larg-er and more massive instruments for the new piano compo-sitions in the 19th century, pianists’ playing continually had to adjust to the new circumstances. Different ways of playing the piano developed, some of them at odds with one another.

Technique and touch

The famous term “technique” now mostly describes the agility of the fingers in fast and virtuosic passages. How-

ever, the ability to produce different tonal colours and mix them artfully with one another, or to position them clearly distinctly from one another, as well as to express lyrical phrasings, intensity or elegance are significant components of “technique,” and in the broader sense form the element of “touch.”Finger, hand, forearm and shoulder are, at bottom, mechani-cal levers that can be set into motion via numerous liga-ments, muscles and tendons. To a large degree, this move-ment, performed when striking a key, needs to be allotted very delicately to be able to transfer all of the composer’s powers of imagination within a single centimetre – for that is the depth to which the piano keys can be pressed.For a good two hundred years, several piano manufacturers have made concessions to us pianists: After various designs, actions have been made more playable to a certain extent, and the resulting “ever round, full tone entrances and capti-vates the ear.”Frédéric Chopin, author of the above quote, already knew that fine gradations of touch can thereby be distinguished. He had personally settled on instruments that were capable of faithfully reproducing his multi-coloured playing, namely those of the Austrian Ignaz Pleyel.

The action of Bösendorfer pianos

Ever in search of nuances and new refinements, and for the unforgettable musical discoveries that arise like rev-

elations when playing in front of an audience, an exceptional instrument and an accurate keyboard are necessary.Amongst today’s piano manufacturers, the action of Bösendorfer pianos, perfected in 1996, perhaps possesses the most highly developed ability to reproduce precisely the fin-est shadings of touch in every register and at every dynamic level, without losing the very short reaction times. In princi-ple, two types of touch are possible on the piano: the “struck” touch, in which a finger that is already in motion strikes the key with velocity, and the “pressed” touch, in which the fin-ger only begins its movement directly on the key surface.

Each method produces a certain sound, the first a somewhat more aggressive yet brilliant, the second a supple, soft sound. Both types can and must be combined in order to fulfil the manifold demands of the music adequately. The personal combination of these two elementary types of touch is an important part of a pianist’s own, sometimes unmistakable “sound.” The Bösendorfer action is able to reproduce these differences in the types of touch demonstrably more effec-tively than the action of other piano manufacturers.2 The dis-tinctive features of every artist are thereby emphasised even more by Bösendorfer pianos. An intense connection between pianist and instrument can thereby arise, one that affects playing very positively.

On the piano, a note lives only for a moment and cannot be changed after it is produced. Touch, the most critical

detail of tone production, is in truth a compromise between the nature of the person and the nature of the instrument. And the more unobtrusive is each passage between notes, mind, joints, action and instrument as a whole, the less of a veil there is between the spirit of the composer and our com-prehension as listeners. “It’s playing” then becomes reality and the transcendence of the sound rises above and beyond the written note, truly “from the heart – to the heart.”

Giuseppe MariottiProfessor of Piano at Tokushima Bunri University, Japan, and Dean of the Faculty of Music.

“From the heart – may it go to the heart!”1 – but in between is a piano action. This technologically highly advanced intermediate stage often presents a tricky problem to pianists.

Touch and Action

Prof. Giuseppe Mariotti at the Porsche Design Grand.

1 Quote by Ludwig van Beethoven, Missa Solemnis 2 Cf. W. Goebl, R. Bresin and A. Galembo (2005). “Touch and temporal behaviour of grand piano actions,” in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118, No. 2, pp. 1154-1165.

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Many of the roughly 350 rentals per year begin with an enquiry. During the initial consultation, any points nec-

essary for making an offer are clarified. When an instrument is ordered, it is prepared one day prior to delivery by a techni-cian from the service department, with the greatest empha-sis being placed on delivering the Bösendorfer rental piano at the correct pitch and in sonically and technically outstanding condition.

Bettina Gruber, a Bösendorfer staff member of many years, is responsible for the majority of such logistical and or-

ganisational planning. She is hardly ever confronted by an event that poses unsolvable problems – not even the time when a French ship-owning company rented a grand piano for a week for a Danube cruise ship, yet was only in Vienna for an hour, during which the delivery and tuning had to be performed precisely. The greatest emphasis is also placed on the piano’s transport and setting it up on-site. For decades, Bösendorfer has trusted specific international freight com-panies exclusively. It is always our utmost concern to satisfy

presenters, artists, and – last but not least – the audience at the highest level.

A major area of activity of the Viennese service department is supplying the concert and event market with first-class Bösendorfer instruments. Most venues are available for all sorts of events.

Renting a Bösendorfer

M i s c e l l a n e o u s

Many people contribute to a piano’s on-time delivery.

Friedrich Gulda was not only a pianist and composer, he was also a teacher, jazz interpreter and agent provocateur. Who

fails to remember the reports of his death which he personally falsified in 1999? He even played naked in a televised concert and made a fool of the music world under the pseudonym Albert Golowin.

Gulda, who was born on May 16, 1930 and died on Janu-ary 27, 2000, is probably most memorable as a pianist.

In numerous recordings, he interpreted the compositions of Beethoven and Mozart uniquely and left them to poster-ity. The very person who rejected memorials thus created his own memorial. Now, others have created a memorial to him. Friedrich Gulda Park was opened on September 8, 2011 in his home district of Landstrasse in Vienna. The park is located in the middle of an attractive new apartment complex, designed by Gulda admirer Prof. Gustav Peichl and built by the South Tyrolean construction company Seeste. That evening, the bronze sculpture by Lois Anvidalfarei was donated to the city of Vienna by the company Seeste Bau AG in the presence of the South Tyrolean artist. It bears the title “Lying head with gi-ant ear” and is “a homage to Friedrich Gulda and his music.”

Friedrich Gulda’s sons Paul and Rico were present at the opening, as was Felicia Gulda, his granddaughter. Naturally, a Bösendorfer was played, both solo and as an accompaniment: “For me, it is a matter of course at the opening of Friedrich Gulda Park in his old neighbourhood, and all the more so on the site of a former piano manufacturer: It had to be a Bösen-dorfer Imperial – the best that Viennese piano building has to offer,” Paul Gulda said.

One reaches the “Lying head with giant ear” sculpture in the newly opened Friedrich Gulda Park in Vienna’s Third District via walkable piano keys. The symbol is a homage to Friedrich Gulda and to his music.

A Memorial to a Rejecter of Memorials

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“Lying head with giant ear – a homage to Friedrich Gulda, to his music” by Lois Anvidalfarei in the new Gulda Park in Vienna. On stage, Gulda’s son Paul conducts a piece by his father.

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B Ö S E N D O R F E R – The magazine by Bösendorfer Austria

M i s c e l l a n e o u s

For Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday year, a Liszt path was cre-ated in Raiding, which was ceremoniously opened in June

2011. At just under three kilometres in length, the path winds through Liszt’s birthplace of Raiding in Burgenland, Austria. There are eight stations along the stretch, which mainly leads along a village green, in the middle of which is the house in which Franz Liszt was born.

A mighty Bösendorfer grand piano proudly looks into the village

The “walkable piano” is the name of the station designed to communicate to visitors the working equipment of

the great pianist and composer: A mighty Bösendorfer grand piano proudly looks into the village as a reminiscence of “his” instrument, the one on which Franz Liszt celebrated many of his major successes. The piano was copied by Bösendorfer at one and a half times its actual size and also made corre-spondingly “weatherproof” for use outdoors. As a special fea-ture, one key was made with full functionality of its mechani-cal parts. In this way, the mechanical inner life of the piano can be brought closer to interested observers.In addition to its sturdiness, Franz Liszt loved the exquisite sound of the Bösendorfer grand piano above all. In an 1872

During the festival, Bösendorfer grand pianos were used not only for the international competitions for piano

and trombone, but the instruments of the traditional piano manufacturer from Austria were also the choice of artists in a series of concerts: Paul Badura-Skoda, admirer of the “beautiful, singing Bösendorfer sound,” thrilled the audience together with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in Prague’s famous Rudolfinum. In the St. Agnes convent, the Ensemble Martinu made a celebrated appearance, and the public ap-plauded the Prague Guarneri Trio in the Czech National Bank.

The Bösendorfer instruments were highly praised, as the director of the Czech Philharmonic, David Marecek, con-

firmed: “Bösendorfer is truly a unique instrument that has a graceful, pastel-coloured sound. For Viennese repertoire, es-pecially Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, it lends the pianist an ideal sonic expressive spectrum that otherwise is nowhere to be found.”

letter by Liszt to his friend Gustav Kardinal Hohenlohe in Pest, he wrote the following about the Bösendorfer instruments: “... in my opinion, his pianos are the most perfect, beautiful sounding and pleasant to play amongst all pianos produced in the factories in the Austrian empire and beyond.”The new Liszt path is reminiscent of the life and work of the great Raiding native. “The walking path invites visitors to get to know Raiding and the attractive idyll of a small Pannonian village on the one hand, and to get to know Franz Liszt on the other,” mayor Markus Landauer proclaimed.

The Liszt path – in which the oversized Bösendorfer grand piano becomes a central component of the exhibition – shows the life and work of the great musician.

The 66th Prague Spring International Music Festival took place in the Czech Republic in the spring of 2011.

The Liszt Path in Raiding

“Prague Spring” International Music Festival

The Prague Guarneri Trio in concert at the 66th International Prague Spring Music Festival.

“The walkable piano” – a Bösendorfer one and a half times its actual size.

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LUNCHTIME CONCERTS

Yet they need the small stages so that they can grow into the larger ones. The Bösendorfer lunchtime concert series

in Bösendorfer Hall, located in the Mozarthaus Vienna, offers young artists good opportunities to do so.

Continuation of a good tradition

When Bösendorfer was no longer able to operate its on-site concert hall due to moving the company from

Vienna’s Graf Starhemberg-Gasse in 2010, the company faced the question of how to continue its good tradition of supporting young artists in the future. The search for a suit-able solution led to the collaboration between the Mozart-haus Vienna, owned by Wien-Holding, and Bösendorfer, which has been in effect since October of 2010. The house, situated at Domgasse 5, right behind St. Stephan’s Cathedral, accommodates the only one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s apartments in Vienna that has been preserved to this day. It is now run as a museum. In the basement of the house is Bösendorfer Hall.“I assure you that this is a magnificent place,” Mozart said about his adopted home of Vienna. The Mozarthaus Vienna in Vienna’s 1st District – formerly named the Figarohaus – in which the musical genius lived from 1784 to 1787, is now the

new “magnificent place” for continuing our concerts. And to make possible additional public performances in front of an unknown audience to the best talents of Vienna’s two great musical pedagogical institutions – namely the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the Konservatorium Wien University – we have begun presenting a lunchtime concert series. The best students were selected by the profes-sors of these institutions. The pianists were almost entirely free to choose their programmes, with the only stipulation being that a piece by Mozart should be on the programme.

The Bösendorfer lunchtime concerts in the Mozarthaus Vienna

Not only have the constantly well-attended lunchtime concerts in the Mozarthaus Vienna continued a good

tradition of our company, they will also continue to be pre-sented in the future. As pianist and piano pedagogue Roland Batik, who very recently celebrated his 60th birthday, said about the key to successful performing on small as well as large stages: “You have to be on fire!” And indeed they are – whether they’re experienced like Roland Batik or young and highly talented, like the wonderful pianists in the Bösendorfer lunchtime concerts in the Mozarthaus Vienna.

Nearly all young artists feel within themselves the desire to get to play on the world’s great concert stages in order to receive the audience’s applause.

“You Have to Be on Fire…”

Bösendorfer Hall in the Mozarthaus Vienna – setting of the Bösendorfer lunchtime concerts

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SENDER: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH · Bösendorferstrasse 12 · A-1010 ViennaPostage paid. Publisher’s post offi ce: 1010 Vienna

The 14th International Beethoven Piano Competition, an event of the highest artistic renown and standard, will be held by the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in June 2013.Bösendorfer pianos will be played exclusively.

Competition dates: 10–20 June 2013Application deadline: 15 October 2012Entry examinations: February 2013in New York City, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bonn, Berlin, London, Paris and Vienna

Open to pianists of either sex and all nationalities, born between 1 Jan 1981 and 31 Dec 1996.

The fi nale will take place with orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

“The quality of the interpretation of Beethoven’s immortal masterpieces is a key element for musicians’ artistic reputation. This unique competition in the heart of beautiful Vienna gives young pianists a rewarding opportunity to showcase their musicianship and artistic maturity.”

Jan Jiracek von ArnimArtistic Director

www.beethoven-comp.at

SENDER: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH · Bösendorferstrasse 12 · A-1010 ViennaSENDER: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH · Bösendorferstrasse 12 · A-1010 Vienna

The fi rst prize of the International Beethoven Competition is a Bösendorfer model 200 grand piano.