at The Turn of The Millenium

Saturday, December 4, 1999

More and more people, particularly those with means and space, are considering the seven foot grand, sometimes called a "semi-concert" grand, or an "artist" grand. These pianos are on average two feet shorter than a full concert grand and a foot longer than the six foot "parlor" grand. The tonal advantages come with size, allowing for longer and thinner bass and tenor strings, in order to produce a tone that is more clear, pure and penetrating than that produced by a six foot grand, but not as much so as the sound of a full concert grand. Many people, including professionals, just keep the lids closed on these pianos, since their power can really be felt. But of course for concertizing and recording, these pianos are unsurpassed. Not all of these are quite the "flagship" pianos for most companies, although for some they are since they are the largest pianos these manufacturers make and these are identified by an * after the name. The question remains simple; we know we're looking for a seven foot grand in ebony. We want to know what's out there?

There are somewhat fewer entries in this sample than in previous samples, but some makers have more than one entry at this level which is quite astounding considering that there are fewer likely customers for these. Consider Bosendorfer which looks like it wants to dominate the top and make Fazioli's entry a seemingly good buy.

The largest piano by size of the lot, 7' 9" arguably belongs in with the concert grands but it is widely acknowledged as probably one of the best buys out there right now in terms of size and quality so I'm including it in this list. It's the Petrof II at position 19.

The American entries are once again Steinway at 26 with Mason & Hamlin right behind at 25 and Baldwin's at 22. Wouldn't it be a nice fantasy to own one each of these? I wonder which one I'd spend more time playing? If I were looking seriously at any of these I'd consider finding a Schimmel or Sauter close by. And I'd definately want to try out a Forster as well. Steinway B's are rare enough, anything beyond Steinway is in the Alps again and look at Yamaha's handmade entry here. Anyone ever seen one of these? You might at some music festival. That's where a few of them have been tried out lately.

By the way some of these deserve special notice, the Forster is a truly great piano, as are the Grotrian and the Steingraeber. Anything above that is exotic and wonderful beyond words.

A peculiarity is that the first entry, a Hallet & Davis, is perhaps one of the older names and the piano currently bearing this name is made in Asia and is probably the largest piano ever made bearing the Hallet & Davis name on its fallboard.

The pianos framed by the two Schultz & Sons entries, both made by some special design deal by Samick in Korea, would all seem worth checking out. The Petrof is awesome. The Yamaha is very decent, so is the Kawai, if you like their sound. The Bohemia is great if you can find one, a bit brighter than the mighty Petrof. The largest Boston you can buy is in there too. At 7'2", it's bigger than a Steinway B and about $20K cheaper.

There's a strangely large number of entries from Asia at the bottom of the list. There are alot of duplications. I wonder if they really make more grands of this size than the more famous makers or whether they just have plenty to sell in the US at these prices? How good are any of them? I don't know. The Knabe at 11 is probably identical to the Young Chang at 6 and even the Hallet & Davis at 1. The Weber at 9 is likewise probably nearly identical to the Young Chang at 8. The two Schultz & Sons are really the same as the Samicks. The Pearl River and Ridgewood are also the same. The Kohler & Campbells are made in Malaysia or someplace like that. Who knows about them?