Cartier of the Keyboards

Boesendorfer turns 150

Franz Liszt, so the story goes, was having grave problems. Early 19th century pianos--not much sturdier than the delicate harpsichord--were collapsing, with great snapping of strings, beneath his monumental assault. Why not, some Viennese friends suggested, try a new piano called the Boesendorfer? The instrument, first made in 1828 by an Austrian artisan named Ignaz Boesendorfer, stood up to Liszt's crashing octaves, and the composer delightedly gave it his official endorsement. This month the venerable piano company celebrated its 150th anniversary with a series of piano recitals and a gala concert at the Musikverein hall in Vienna.

Boesendorfer, which employs 135 craftsmen at its factory in Wiener Neustadt and 100 more in the finishing plant in Vienna, is Cartier of keyboard makers. With European Steinways made in Hamburg, and Bechstein, another grand old veteran, based in Berlin, the Boesendorfer is part of a tiny musical elite: what aficionados consider the triumvirate of pianistic excellence. But in price and -- some think -- even tone, Boesendorfer has the edge. Its 9-ft. 6-in. grand costs $38,000 (Steinway's largest U.S. model, 8 ft. 11% in., costs $17,220), and its smallest piano, 5 ft. 8 in., goes for $16,500 ($8,240 for a comparable U.S. Steinway).

Lumber for the Boesendorfer is seasoned outdoors for three or four years before being used, and each handcrafted mechanism takes over a year to complete. The keys are ivory, a nearly extinct luxury; the bushings -- the tiny linings of the piano's moving parts-- are still made of felt. (Steinway, by contrast, has switched to Teflon bushings, which require much less time to insert and glue, but can squeak.)

Over the the years, Boesendorfer has custom-built magnificent pianos for the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, and for the czar of Russia. Boesendorfers have been owned by such masters as Anton Rubinstein, Gustav Mahler, Ignace Paderewski and more recently by Bela Bartok and Frank Sinatra. After World War II, however, production fell from its peak in 1913 to around 100 pianos a year. For one thing, the factory, once a monastery, needed modernizing. For another, hauteur some times precluded sales; one director was said to have dismissed a customer by saying that he was "not a good enough pianist to own a Boesendorfer."

In 1966, Kimball -- an American company that makes moderately priced pianos and has 25% of the U.S. piano market --purchased Boesendorfer. "People were afraid that we would make the 'Kimballdorfer,' some plastic monstrosity," says Vice President Anthony Habig. "But now a lot of them admit that they can get a finer instrument than before."

With production up over 600 pianos a year, Boesendorfer now plans to shed its aristocratic reserve and compete with Steinway for the U.S. concert business. It will make Boesendorfers available across the country for performances by travel ing artists. Pianist Garrick Ohlsson has al ready gone over. But the odds are still with the Steinway: 95% of American concert pianists endorse it. Too bad Liszt is not around to judge the competition.

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