An authentic Grieg grand piano
Until now, a grand piano by the Berlin firm Duysen (built in 1884) graced the historic music salon of the Grieg-Begegnungsstätte and served us well for over 10 years through hundreds of concerts. As there had, however, been repeated faults and technical difficulties with the historic instrument in the recent past, the realisation gradually but surely matured that – in order to continue to maintain the quality of our concerts – we would have to move to a new instrument.
Board member Prof. Dietmar Nawroth – piano professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" – and managing director Werner Kopfmüller travelled to the piano manufactory in Hamburg. Here they described our needs: we wanted a historic grand piano that could still be used in concert performance. The manufacturer should, if possible, be a firm that Grieg himself also preferred.
A grand piano by the firm Steinway immediately caught the eye of the expert association members. With its size and characteristic volume of sound, it fitted exactly into our rooms. Moreover, the Hamburg firm Steinway was an address greatly valued by Grieg; for instance, a Steinway grand piano also stands to this day in the Grieg Museum Troldhaugen – the composer's former home. Built in 1901, the instrument comes precisely from that era in which Grieg too was active. In this respect, we come a little closer to the ideal of presenting an authentic Grieg sound in our music salon. Since 23 July, the B-211 grand piano has now been at Talstrasse and invites people to play.
Premiere concert with the new grand piano
On 18 October the time had finally come. After a six-month break in operations due to the coronavirus, we returned to our annual programme. Baritone Modestas Sedlevicius and Clemens Müller at the piano presented a programme under the title "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen". Alongside the songs about a man "going out into the world" from Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang, works by Grieg, Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf were also heard.
The new "sound" of the grand piano particularly benefited the sound world of the songs by Mahler and Wolf. The captivating and room-filling tone of the instrument reached the very last row. In the room, only about a third full due to hygiene restrictions, the concert was thus an experience in every seat.