----- Original Message ----- From: Porritt, David To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 1:22 PM Subject: [CAUT] Steinway cult Let's look at why there seems to be a cult following around Steinway. Artists who play every other instrument except piano, play their own instrument. The trumpet player, the violinist, the cellist all take their instruments with them even if (as in the cast of the cellist) they have to purchase an airline ticket for the instrument. They always play their instrument with which they are very familiar. Pianists, have to play whatever is there. This does bring on lots of angst. When they get to the venue they are comforted by seeing something familiar. If it is a Steinway that starts their being at ease. It might be a great Steinway, or it might be a dreadful one, but at least it is familiar. We had an artist come here last summer that when he found out that our Steinway was being rebuilt and that he would have to play a Yamaha he was quite unhappy. When the date finally arrived for his performance he changed to a smaller recital hall here that has a Steinway B rather than the Yamaha CFIIIS. Familiarity won out over the superior piano. After a few decades of this, Steinway becomes the comfort food for a very apprehensive performer. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that this has developed. If there had been more companies promoting their concert instruments there might be more diversity but Steinway has won the familiarity war. It will take any other manufacturer a lot of effort to put a dent in their dominance in that market. They are the market leader in this area. They are not the market leader in total number of units sold, but in the concert/recital venues, they own it. That does not necessarily make them the best piano, they just won the concert venue playoffs. dave _________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University 6101 Bishop Dallas, TX 75275 dporritt at smu.edu Dave, There is one more side of this that you haven't added in, that I have mentioned before. Considering performers, at least in the US, there have been only two companies that have produced instruments, uninterrupted, and without a cease in production for all the entire life time of anyone now living here. Now, it doesn't matter whether a manufacturer is producing instruments on again off again, nor do changes in quality particularly affect the situation. What affects the relationship far more than any other factor is the stability and predictability of the dealer network. When a manufacturer undergoes so many changes, the dealer network cannot remain stable and maintain local presence. One thing Steinway does better than any other manufacturer is to protect its dealership network. The Steinway dealer here in Columbia has been with Steinway for over 50 years, (I think its actually much longer than that), while every other manufacturer has had very inconsistent representation. Until the last few years, Steinway and Baldwin were the only two options performers could RELY on in the US. And even Baldwin has had a reputation for being a difficult company to maintain a dealership relationship with, especially now under Gibson. Knabe and Mason & Hamlin have gone through so many changes in ownership and production interruptions that dealership networks haven't been able to be reliable. Yamaha and Kawai didn't come on the scene here until 40 years ago and it takes time for an outsider to become accepted, especially when you consider that a large percentage of the American population are the children of a generation who once considered the Japanese, Germans and Italians the enemy. And what European instrument has had any significant presence here until very recently? Who else have I missed? In other words, long term company profitability, solid business practices and world wars have had a lot more to do with creating this "cult" than we are giving them credit. Now, when it comes to performers of other instruments, when a player selects a violin, for example, he/she selects by tone. But then will have the instrument set up to their own individual preference. The different woods available for bridge selection, the shape and fitting of the bridge itself, the string selection, all are options a performer can have changed to customize an instrument to a feel they are familiar with. Even the bow selection is believed to have an impact on tone. So, the piano is not so easily customized, and so sorting through the various manufacturer's offerings is the only means a pianist has to "customize" an instrument to his/her liking. Jeff Tanner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090418/903a9fa9/attachment-0001.html>
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