Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg began making pianos in his kitchen in Sessen, Germany at the ripe old age of 20. Every Steinway & Sons piano takes over a year to be built by their master craftsman and each piano is made of more than 12,000 parts. Steinway & Sons are possibly the most well known and revered piano manufacturer in the world. If you can’t afford one of their premium instruments Blüthner also offer two other ranges, the Heassler and Irmler ranges. Blüthner pianos have been purchased and played by Queen Victoria, Listz, Brahms, Tsar Nicholas II, Rachmaninov, and Tschaikovsky.īlüthner have been awarded no less than 5 gold medals by the Leipzig Fair for their handcrafted and stunning pianos. Over the years and to this day Blüthner has built and maintained a reputation of outstanding quality. World War Two impacted the piano maker quite heavily and their factory was destroyed by an air raid in 1943, fortunately it was rebuilt in 1945. Wilhem Kempff, the acclaimed pianist, praised their pianos as ‘precise’ and having ‘unrivalled beauty’.Ī Blüthner grand was the first piano to be used in an airborne recital, the company had built a piano for the famous airship Hindenburg which crossed the atlantic with the piano. Blüthners are still renowned for their quality and a clear tone. Forty-seven years later Blüthner had become the largest piano maker in Germany, producing over 5000 instruments a year. In 1853 Julius Blüthner started the company that is still run and managed by the Blüthner family. Their pianos are known for a darker or richer sound than the purer but less full-bodied sound of other pianos.Īnother great piano manufacturer from Germany, this time Leipzig. For them, we build something very special, with devotion and professionalism: the Bösendorfer among the grands”īösendorfer offer luxury and exclusive pianos, they make only a few hundred pianos a year and each piano is handmade. Acquiring a Bösendorfer is a lifetime dream for many people. “We are world famous for our quality, our outstanding richness of tone colour and our typical pure and inspiring sound. The extra keys were so popular that Bösendorfer have extended the keyboard on many of their range. This extra range made the Imperial Grand one of the most loved concert grands in the world, which continues to this day. Bösendorfer is famous for inventing the extension to the 88-key keyboard with the Imperial Grand that boasts a 97-key keyboard, giving 8 octaves. Ignaz Bösendorfer founded the company and was endowed with the honour of “official piano maker” to the Emperor of Austria in 1830. In no particular order, here are our Top 10 Piano Makers: Bösendorferīösendorfer is one of the oldest luxury piano makers in the world, having started in Vienna, Austria in 1828. House Removals, Piano Movers, Office Relocation, International Removals

Schimmel piano 1893