Oh wow. Was that the sound of the thing being made? Narration would have helped here. As I'm blind I had to guess. Lovely tone, though. I can never hear Beethoven on a modern piano since I listened to a variety of fortepiano. Keep up the fantastic work.
Yes, it was a montage of different stages from the carpentry, to applying the dark stain to the wood, adding the strings, and then seeing a close up of someone applying glue to the hammers and then carefully aligning the strip of felt around the tip. With everything nearly done, you see someone playing a bit of a sonata to test it out and then it fades away. I wish we could get a full performance though!
@@RobBrogan ruclips.net/p/OLAK5uy_l-7AVBMGgr52skGj548wPvub7U7k2SGF0&si=f8zQzMyXWdi5Pich These were all recorded on the same piano that was featured here.
Wonderful craftsmanship, and great historical research, but i just don't like the sound. I don't hear why ppl rave about these instruments. I'll bet Beethoven would take the 9' Steinway concert grand over his own tinny sounding piano any day.
guys thank you so much for posting this. I'm restoring a historical erard right now and this comes in so useful to watch and very inspiring. Amazing undertaking. Congratulations. Please let me know what the powder you are using when putting in piano tuning pins.
Hello! Could you clarify one doubt I have? In page 653 of the 2th volume of Taruskin's The Oxford History of Western Music, there's a photo of the 1803 Erard presented to Beethoven, but in the photo the piano has 4 pedals. But I see that in other videos the mechanism of this piano was still played with the knees. Would you please have explanatory comments about that?
Henrique Rabelo Thank you so much for the note. Yes In the harpsichord era, transitioning to modern piano, the knee-action pedals were eventually phased out. But since we weren’t pumping air with our legs as in an organ, the manufacturer thought we’d have an extra leg available. Thank you again for the note
I was like - wow look at those dovetail joints - a lot of furniture these days don't use them! Beautiful instrument - a lot of work went into making it!
I somehow presumed that before cast iron plate era strings in piano are bi-chord at best because woods can't hold those string's force? and imagined strings are much much thinner but here I'm they are all tri-chords and look at that thick beckets they have! what's that white-ish powder when the technician's stringing? perhaps it's for the enough friction. What a rare footage making old piano! do they still sell or not? probably it's much easier to make (i mean because of cast iron, modern pianos are impossible to be done by individuals you know) and lightweight!
A question, will the Beethoven's Erard have the same modifications to the action as Beethoven required as he did not fully approve of the original form?
More explanations are needed, if I am to understand. Are you making the actions? (Indeed yes! Edited.) Modern piano-makers often buy actionboards from fx. Renner(?) The procedure for making a Beethoven Erard (and actions thereof) must be simpler but perhaps more sensitive to materials and maker's precision? I don't know? I follow the link ...
As far as the keyboard itself, You can send the designs to a lot of different dedicated keyboard makers out there. That aspect actually has not changed much since then. You just need to give them the right dimensions. But they only come partially done. the action you will have to build from scratch for a replica instrument like this which is a lot of hand labor. I know of a few rebuilding shops that specialize in Chickering concert grands with the edmon brown action which if broken requires them to literally either recondition, or flat out remake. Do note that it is difficult to make good money doing this kind of work given the amount of labor it takes. I mean you will see the prices of these replica pianos and see that they cost similar to that of a brand new concert grand, but remember that the margins are generally lower for these instraments. This and old style pneumatic player piano restoration are generally labors of love. Building a piano from scratch is no small feat and given the lack of available off the shelf parts.
@@zackeryhardy9504 thanx, I guessed it was labor of love; music generally is except for pop, show. Also a bit love in factory pianos like ... Fazioli? Estonia?
@@dibaldgyfm9933 High end pianos from truely good makers are generally labors of love aswell. I mean you could go for maximum profit like steinway, and they sadly still sell better despite being objectively worse in many ways including poor soundboard design, a lack of understanding in plate variance resulting in terrible feeling actions in the majority of their instraments, and poor finish quality out of the factory. Compare that to Fazioli or Mason and Hamlin and you will find that they do a terrific Job. I actually Work for Mason and Hamlin and given the sales price to time it takes to do things well, it is something that is driven by the desire to make a good instrument. If you want profit, you generally want to make affordable instraments for the masses. Make them cheap and sell them for decent margins. But if you really want to see how good a piano is, just look at the number of hours it takes to build a piano. If the factory is competent then the number of hours is highly correlated with how much attention to detail is taken. Fazioli's, Estonias and Masons take a long time to manufacture. Objectivley speaking they all have the dynamics. Your choice beyond that is generally about subjective enjoyment of the sound as each manufactuer has chosen the general sound they are going for through scaling techniques, hammer voicing, and some other aspects that are much too detailed to really discuss.
If you don't know this web site ( Authentic Sound ), you mighr be interested in. Classical piano is played on an authentic and restored Viennese Beethoven 's time piano ( and sometimes you will hear organ , clavichord and other authentic instruments ). Be careful , you might gert shocked . Narrow minded peoples are .
That's what I like to see white glue everywhere none of your messy smelly animal glue . Seriously though a maker of this caliber should be using hide glue generally for all parts under stress as well a action parts. Is he using PVA, please tell me if I am wrong.
I thought the same; they build a replica using modern tools, that is OK, but the glue? Also I wondered what the purpose is. The demo in the end sounds awfully because a new piano gets out of tune the moment you left it after tuning. But when tuned a dozen times it begins to sound better.
Erard was a Parisian piano manufacturer, the firm always maintained a facility in Paris, France from 1777-1959. Erard moved to London, England during the French Revolution and remained in England until about the mid-late 19th century. Between the Paris and London Erard pianos, the best ones are made in Paris. Although there are some really fine London Erard pianos that I am aware of.
LoL.. i thought we were going to see and or hear a "piano" that Beethoven played?? its strange to see them re- creating something like this, but also, great, lovely to see..
It does my heart good to see such dedication to hand-built artistry in our modern age. Thank you!
A very special moment when it speaks for the first time.
3:53 Waldstein Sonata
M's Compositions thats what i was thinking
@@johannsebastianbach7920 haha same
Well spotted!
That's Tom Beghin from McGill University - I had a Beethoven seminar with him! - Very weird pianist..
@@MrStojkovicj Still a world-class performer.
Happy 250th Birthday, Beethoven!
Oh wow. Was that the sound of the thing being made? Narration would have helped here. As I'm blind I had to guess. Lovely tone, though. I can never hear Beethoven on a modern piano since I listened to a variety of fortepiano. Keep up the fantastic work.
Yeah, classic pianos are elite
Yes, it was a montage of different stages from the carpentry, to applying the dark stain to the wood, adding the strings, and then seeing a close up of someone applying glue to the hammers and then carefully aligning the strip of felt around the tip. With everything nearly done, you see someone playing a bit of a sonata to test it out and then it fades away. I wish we could get a full performance though!
@@RobBrogan ruclips.net/p/OLAK5uy_l-7AVBMGgr52skGj548wPvub7U7k2SGF0&si=f8zQzMyXWdi5Pich These were all recorded on the same piano that was featured here.
Wonderful craftsmanship, and great historical research, but i just don't like the sound. I don't hear why ppl rave about these instruments. I'll bet Beethoven would take the 9' Steinway concert grand over his own tinny sounding piano any day.
It's aliiive!!!
Such a perfect creature.... ♡♡♡♡♡
True.
Bellissimo lavoro!!!
truly an amazing recreation
guys thank you so much for posting this. I'm restoring a historical erard right now and this comes in so useful to watch and very inspiring. Amazing undertaking. Congratulations.
Please let me know what the powder you are using when putting in piano tuning pins.
Hello! Could you clarify one doubt I have? In page 653 of the 2th volume of Taruskin's The Oxford History of Western Music, there's a photo of the 1803 Erard presented to Beethoven, but in the photo the piano has 4 pedals. But I see that in other videos the mechanism of this piano was still played with the knees. Would you please have explanatory comments about that?
Henrique Rabelo Thank you so much for the note. Yes In the harpsichord era, transitioning to modern piano, the knee-action pedals were eventually phased out. But since we weren’t pumping air with our legs as in an organ, the manufacturer thought we’d have an extra leg available. Thank you again for the note
Probably talc
@@ritschardt I don’t understand why.
@@davidmann8254 it is used as solid lubricant so you can tune without excessive friction
I was like - wow look at those dovetail joints - a lot of furniture these days don't use them!
Beautiful instrument - a lot of work went into making it!
Fascinating
Lovely.
Fabulous!
Very well built......
Beautiful.
Waldstein spotted at 3:51
I somehow presumed that before cast iron plate era strings in piano are bi-chord at best because woods can't hold those string's force? and imagined strings are much much thinner but here I'm they are all tri-chords and look at that thick beckets they have! what's that white-ish powder when the technician's stringing? perhaps it's for the enough friction. What a rare footage making old piano! do they still sell or not? probably it's much easier to make (i mean because of cast iron, modern pianos are impossible to be done by individuals you know) and lightweight!
Gracias por tan bello trabajo
A question, will the Beethoven's Erard have the same modifications to the action as Beethoven required as he did not fully approve of the original form?
Thank you.
beautiful
Lol, I love how literally the second thing he plays is just the gliss from the third movement.
Have you considered any noise attenuation material in your shop? Might make it a nicer place to work.
More explanations are needed, if I am to understand. Are you making the actions? (Indeed yes! Edited.)
Modern piano-makers often buy actionboards from fx. Renner(?) The procedure for making a Beethoven Erard (and actions thereof) must be simpler but perhaps more sensitive to materials and maker's precision? I don't know? I follow the link ...
People who build replicas of pianos such as this generally build their own actions
As far as the keyboard itself, You can send the designs to a lot of different dedicated keyboard makers out there. That aspect actually has not changed much since then. You just need to give them the right dimensions. But they only come partially done. the action you will have to build from scratch for a replica instrument like this which is a lot of hand labor. I know of a few rebuilding shops that specialize in Chickering concert grands with the edmon brown action which if broken requires them to literally either recondition, or flat out remake. Do note that it is difficult to make good money doing this kind of work given the amount of labor it takes. I mean you will see the prices of these replica pianos and see that they cost similar to that of a brand new concert grand, but remember that the margins are generally lower for these instraments. This and old style pneumatic player piano restoration are generally labors of love. Building a piano from scratch is no small feat and given the lack of available off the shelf parts.
@@zackeryhardy9504 thanx, I guessed it was labor of love; music generally is except for pop, show. Also a bit love in factory pianos like ... Fazioli? Estonia?
@@dibaldgyfm9933 High end pianos from truely good makers are generally labors of love aswell. I mean you could go for maximum profit like steinway, and they sadly still sell better despite being objectively worse in many ways including poor soundboard design, a lack of understanding in plate variance resulting in terrible feeling actions in the majority of their instraments, and poor finish quality out of the factory.
Compare that to Fazioli or Mason and Hamlin and you will find that they do a terrific Job. I actually Work for Mason and Hamlin and given the sales price to time it takes to do things well, it is something that is driven by the desire to make a good instrument. If you want profit, you generally want to make affordable instraments for the masses. Make them cheap and sell them for decent margins. But if you really want to see how good a piano is, just look at the number of hours it takes to build a piano. If the factory is competent then the number of hours is highly correlated with how much attention to detail is taken. Fazioli's, Estonias and Masons take a long time to manufacture. Objectivley speaking they all have the dynamics. Your choice beyond that is generally about subjective enjoyment of the sound as each manufactuer has chosen the general sound they are going for through scaling techniques, hammer voicing, and some other aspects that are much too detailed to really discuss.
A touch of Jerry Lee at the end there! That always seals it! Mr. R. 😉🎶
OMG so satisfying
That slide in octaves certainly doesn't work on my Steinway piano!
Schiff does it, on some Steinways. I think he used his own at Wigmore Hall. If seeing is believing watch Annique Göttler: dZi-6lxmmQg at 22:29
Do you think it is possible to make a piano at home in our Arabic countries
I'd pay a lot to get something like this. Where would you get one of these?
Paul McNulty fortepiano dot eu
Didn't André Stein modify the action...?
This video makes me wonder how the heck the old pianoforte manufacturers made these instruments without the use of power tools.
Can you please have an acknowledged Beethoven master play it for us
ruclips.net/p/OLAK5uy_l-7AVBMGgr52skGj548wPvub7U7k2SGF0&si=TSnYwNLdDnariVw9
This is a copy of the Erard or a renovation of the Beethoven instrument?
If you don't know this web site ( Authentic Sound ), you mighr be interested in. Classical piano is played on an authentic and restored Viennese Beethoven 's time piano ( and sometimes you will hear organ , clavichord and other authentic instruments ). Be careful , you might gert shocked . Narrow minded peoples are .
That's what I like to see white glue everywhere none of your messy smelly animal glue . Seriously though a maker of this caliber should be using hide glue generally for all parts under stress as well a action parts. Is he using PVA, please tell me if I am wrong.
I thought the same; they build a replica using modern tools, that is OK, but the glue? Also I wondered what the purpose is. The demo in the end sounds awfully because a new piano gets out of tune the moment you left it after tuning. But when tuned a dozen times it begins to sound better.
I thought Erard was an English piano maker.
French but emigrated to London later, after the Revolution.
@@19Edurne worked in both countries.
Erard was a Parisian piano manufacturer, the firm always maintained a facility in Paris, France from 1777-1959. Erard moved to London, England during the French Revolution and remained in England until about the mid-late 19th century. Between the Paris and London Erard pianos, the best ones are made in Paris. Although there are some really fine London Erard pianos that I am aware of.
LoL.. i thought we were going to see and or hear a "piano" that Beethoven played??
its strange to see them re- creating something like this, but also, great, lovely to see..