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Why Steinway Grand Pianos Are So Expensive | So Expensive - Video học tiếng Anh
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Why Steinway Grand Pianos Are So Expensive | So Expensive
Why Steinway Grand Pianos Are So Expensive | So Expensive
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Phụ đề (205)
0:00
it takes about 11 months to craft just
0:03
one steinle and sons grand piano and
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these instruments don't come cheap
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a model d concert piano in ebony the
0:11
most affordable finish of any steinway
0:14
piano will cost you about a hundred
0:16
eighty seven thousand dollars
0:18
but that's nowhere near how high prices
0:21
can reach
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steinway has produced two of the most
0:24
expensive pianos in the world worth over
0:27
two million dollars each
0:29
the next most expensive piano is half
0:32
the price at 1.2 million dollars
0:37
but with several other premium pianos on
0:40
the market is there something about
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steinway's sound that stands out
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and is that what makes these pianos so
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expensive
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named the rolls royce of pianos by the
0:54
bbc
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steinway has produced some of the most
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sought after grand pianos for over 160
1:00
years
1:02
it's the piano of choice for billy joel
1:04
long long and many other professional
1:06
musicians
1:08
but compared to other high-end piano
1:10
makers it's often steinway's sound that
1:13
sets it apart
1:16
as a performer i can wear many different
1:18
masks depending on the piece that i'm
1:20
playing for some pieces you want to be
1:21
very very diabolical you know enlist you
1:24
know
1:30
and at the same time lightness
1:32
[Music]
1:35
creating that sound starts here in new
1:37
york at one of only two steinway
1:38
factories in the world
1:40
[Music]
1:43
each grand piano is five to nine feet
1:45
long and weighs between 540 and 990
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pounds
1:50
often the bigger the piano the pricier
1:52
it will be
1:55
about 85 percent of a steinway piano is
1:57
made of wood and one of the most crucial
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woods is used for the soundboard
2:02
the soundboard is the life of the
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instrument the soul of the instrument
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this is alaskan sitka spruce this is the
2:09
most expensive wood that we have in the
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piano and we actually get it from the
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trees primarily that are on the shady
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side the north-facing side of these
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islands so they grow very little each
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year and that means that we have growth
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rings that are very close together not
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spaced apart
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sica spruce is used in other strained
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instruments like guitars and it grows in
2:32
a few areas in the northwest u.s
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but more than 50 percent of the alaskan
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sickest spruce they source won't meet
2:40
steinway standards
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the wood must have a very specific grain
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density and direction both which can
2:47
impact the quality of sound
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steinway looks for closely packed
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straight grains no more than plus or
2:52
minus 15 degrees off a 90 degree
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vertical grain
2:57
there's a reason it's so strict about
2:59
this
3:00
it's partly why when you press a key on
3:02
a steinway piano
3:04
you hear a distinctly long sustained
3:06
tone
3:11
the soundboard's edge must attach
3:12
perfectly to the piano's rim the curved
3:15
wooden frame of the
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instrument the full rim is made up of an
3:19
inner and outer rim
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some piano makers attach each of these
3:23
pieces separately but at steinway a team
3:26
of artisans bends both together
3:30
steinway says this method gives the
3:32
piano a stronger foundation lowering the
3:34
chances it will break
3:37
steinway uses hard rock maple for both
3:39
the inner and outer rims
3:43
the key here is to use wood that will
3:45
again allow sound to flow freely
3:48
some companies as an example will will
3:50
have hard rock maple for the outside rim
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but the inside room to save money
3:54
they'll use something like luan luon is
3:56
not as dense and hard as hard rock maple
4:00
and when you have your sound waves in
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that sound board some of them are being
4:04
absorbed a little bit by that luon more
4:06
than they would be by hard rock maple
4:08
[Music]
4:12
the consistent touch of the keys is
4:14
another valuable element unique to each
4:16
sideway piano there are just two
4:18
artisans in the entire factory trusted
4:21
with weighing off all 88 keys of every
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keyboard
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this ensures each key is balanced so a
4:27
pianist won't have to use more force to
4:29
press one key over another i used to
4:32
dream about the pianos chasing me
4:34
now it's not a problem it's up to
4:37
date of boss
4:39
i listen you know i pay attention to
4:41
what it wants the key to is pay
4:42
attention
4:44
and watch that hammer that's the key to
4:45
it
4:46
each key is connected to a felt hammer
4:48
when pressed the hammer strikes the
4:50
strings to create sound
4:53
a key shouldn't respond to the fingers
4:54
touch too quickly or too slowly
4:58
so when i go to check the return it
5:00
stays you see the hesitation it's no
5:02
good that means it'll stay up in the
5:04
piano
5:06
you see how fast that one is
5:08
that's too fast so i take this one away
5:12
then i put this one back and it wants
5:15
the small one
5:16
you see so i put the small one you see
5:18
how nice it is
5:20
and that tells me what it wants
5:25
so that shows you
5:27
the difference
5:28
everyone is different
5:31
one of the most difficult jobs is the
5:33
final tone inspection
5:36
the goal is to create a balanced tone
5:38
throughout the piano by slightly
5:40
adjusting the hammers as needed
5:42
from note to note we can soften or
5:44
harden these
5:46
mallets or hammers as we call them
5:49
and balance the sound that they generate
5:52
into the string the quality of piano's
5:54
tone is incredibly nuanced something
5:57
only an experienced ear can decipher
6:00
well if i take this note
6:03
and then soften it in this case i will
6:05
put a needle in the hammer to soften it
6:09
and you'll hear that tone change
6:20
becomes a little bit smaller
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and in increments small steps i can go
6:25
through
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and find the notes that are too big too
6:28
bright and
6:30
step them down
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well i'm 58 and i started when i was 28
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so that's 30 years and counting it's
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still
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i'm still learning how to do this it
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never stops
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like the ways you can customize a
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rolls-royce car you can do similarly
6:48
with a steinway piano
6:50
[Music]
6:51
depending on special editions veneers
6:54
and wood finishes prices for a single
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piece can reach five hundred thousand
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dollars like these pianos designed for
7:00
steinway by lenny kravitz
7:03
in the piano vault underneath the
7:05
factory steinway houses one of the most
7:07
expensive pianos it's ever produced
7:10
worth two and a half million dollars
7:13
on average the price of a new steinway
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piano increases about four percent every
7:18
year
7:19
this is partly because the cost of
7:21
alaskan sitka spruce increases at a
7:23
higher rate than inflation according to
7:25
steinway
7:26
[Music]
7:27
and while the new pieces get more
7:29
expensive old ones become more valuable
7:32
too
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a steinway piano can last several
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decades with the required touch-ups and
7:38
restorations
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[Music]
7:41
a 1965 steinway model d piano is worth
7:45
over 98 000 today
7:48
that's more than 13 times what it likely
7:50
sold for
7:52
and although there are several elements
7:54
that greatly impact the price
7:56
it's the musician who ultimately decides
7:59
what the piano is worth to them
8:04
[Music]
8:30
you
