[JPL] "Note by Note: The Making of a Steinway L1037"

[Sophia Peron]

Movie Review


  Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 (2007)

November 7, 2007


  What's Black and White and Made in Queens?

By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: November 7, 2007, New York Times

"Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037" 
<http://movies.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=400309&inline=nyt_ttl> 
follows the painstaking yearlong process of building and fine-tuning a 
handmade nine-foot concert grand piano in the Steinway company's factory 
in Astoria, Queens. A paean to the rewards of old-fashioned 
craftsmanship in an age of mechanization, the film, directed by Ben 
Niles, amounts to a de facto infomercial for Steinway & Sons, the 
150-year-old company that is the biggest name in the high-end piano 
business. Steinway produces about 2,000 pianos a year, compared with the 
approximately 100 a day by other companies, none of whose names are 
mentioned.

Among the musicians shown testing and selecting pianos are the jazz 
pianists Marcus Roberts, Harry Connick Jr. 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/harry_jr_connick/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
Bill Charlap, Kenny Barron and Hank Jones. From the classical side come 
Lang Lang, Pierre-Laurent Aimard 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/pierrelaurent_aimard/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
and Hélène Grimaud. Their appearances are tantamount to testimonials. 
The completed L1037 is the piano of Ms. Grimaud's dreams, and we hear 
excerpts from her performances of two pieces by Rachmaninoff.

These magnificent instruments do not come cheap. One is shown in the 
Steinway showroom in New York on West 57th Street with a price tag of 
$103,400. No wonder a prospective buyer is very particular in choosing a 
specific piano. Each handmade instrument has its own personality. Some 
yield brighter sounds, while others have deeper, more muted timbres.

The touch also varies considerably. Mr. Connick, who describes himself 
as "rather heavy-handed," prefers "a deep, heavy action," which means 
that notes have to be hit harder than average to make a desired sound. 
"I like the piano to play back a little bit," he says.

Lang Lang compares the best pianos to great actors for their ability to 
convey extremes of emotion and attitude. It was the flamboyant pianism 
in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, he says, that originally drew him to the 
instrument.

Most agree that the individual sound of a handmade piano, as opposed to 
one made by machine and tuned by computer, is one of its glories.

"If you do it by computer, it sounds like a synthesizer --- like a 
machine," observes a factory specialist, known as a rough tuner.

Each concert Steinway consists of 12,000 parts assembled by as many as 
450 people. In addition to a rough tuner, some of the craft experts 
interviewed include a case maker, a plate fitter, a grand finisher, a 
belly maker, a stringer and a fine tuner. The movie shows them at work, 
measuring, fitting, sanding and tightening parts. An artisan with an 
experienced hand and a trained ear can sense the effects of minute 
adjustments that a machine could never take into account.

As these satisfied workers describe what they do and how their tradition 
is handed from generation to generation, you sense that it is not about 
to die anytime soon.

/NOTE BY NOTE/

/The Making of Steinway L1037/

/Opens today in Manhattan. /

Produced and directed by Ben Niles; director of photography, Ben Wolf 
with Luke Geisbuhler, Mr. Niles and Geoff O'Brien; edited by Purcell 
Carson and Mr. O'Brien; released by Plow Productions. At Film Forum 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/film_forum/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, 
209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village. 
Running time: 81 minutes. This film is not rated.