CHOOSING NO.7Words and photography by Dylan Henderson

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crafting his own instruments. In 1830, the Emperor of Austria named him ‘Imperial and Royal Purveyor to the Court’, and thus it was that the term ‘Imperial’ became synonymous with the Bösendorfer name. Ignaz Bösendorfer died in 1859, but his son Ludwig, who was born in 1835, took over the company.

Out of the 150 Austrian contemporary piano builders that once existed, Bösendorfer is the only one that continues to this day. The paperwork documenting the construction and purchase of each instrument has been maintained in an archive that has survived over a hundred years and two World Wars.

When the UKARIA Cultural Centre opened in August 2015, people began to realise very quickly that the concert hall was an instrument in itself. But to make such a venue feel complete, we needed an exceptional piano to be permanently based in the hall, one that would bring out the best in each artist who played it, and one that would be a perfect match for such an intimate space. A 220 seat venue acoustically designed for chamber music was always going to need a very particular kind of piano.

When one thinks of the great piano manufacturers of today, the same names invariably spring to mind: Steinway, Fazioli, Kawai, Yamaha, Bösendorfer. The latter is one of the oldest and most prestigious, with a legacy dating back to 1828. Born in 1794, Ignaz Bösendorfer, the son of a Viennese master carpenter, began his apprenticeship with a Viennese organ and piano builder at the age of 19. 15 years later, in 1828, he took over his master’s factory and began

“I just looked at my documents, this

is the first 214VC [Bösendorfer] in

Australia. A new era of pianos begins

in Australia.”

So reads email correspondence from Pascal Siegl, Sales Representative at the Bösendorfer factory in Vienna,

to Alison Beare, Chief Executive Officer of UKARIA, dated 19 July 2016.

Since 1973, Bösendorfer pianos have been built in the Wiener Neustadt factory, South of Vienna. As a pianist leafing through their bespoke brochure, it’s hard not to feel like a child in a toy store, lost in endless wonder. The list of luminaries who have either played or owned a Bösendorfer is illustrious indeed: Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvorák, Ferruccio Busoni, Anton Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Friedrich Gulda, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder…the list goes on. But out of all the pages detailing their models and their

history, one sentence seems to stand out: ‘In every Bösendorfer piano is not only the work of an entire year, but also the know-how that is passed on from one generation to the next’.

After setting our hearts firmly upon obtaining a Bösendorfer, we needed a pianist who could visit the factory in Austria to select one for us. We were very fortunate to have Christoph Eggner, the pianist of the Eggner Trio, on hand to personally visit the Bösendorfer factory in June and select the instrument that would soon find its home at UKARIA Cultural Centre on the other side of the world in the Adelaide Hills.

Thomas Broukal, Technical Director at Bösendofer, arranged to meet Christoff on June 8 to facilitate the selection, where three brand new Vienna Classic Model 214’s would await.

“In every Bösendorfer piano is not

only the work of an entire year, but

also the know-how that is passed on

from one generation to the next.”

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ˇ

Ignaz Bösendorfer

the finish – it was an unforgettable journey. ‘We found the factory tour fascinating and it has given us a wonderful insight into the instrument which now lives with us at UKARIA Cultural Centre,’ Alison Beare said. ‘It meant so much to ‘meet’ our piano and understand where it is coming from. To know how much care has gone into this instrument is deeply touching,’ she told Bösendorfer Sales Representative Pascal Siegl.

It is a cool and foggy morning on the last day of September when I head up to UKARIA Cultural Centre to meet the

winner of the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition, Russian pianist Konstantin Shamray. The surrounding hills are still cloaked in a silvery mist as the last vestiges of an unusually long winter reluctantly recede. I step into the Cultural Centre with the blissful reassurance that I have an hour to test out the new piano myself before Konstantin arrives. The new instrument stands majestically in the middle of the room, waiting, as if beckoning me toward it as we open up the curtains and let the morning sun shine through. Its lustrous ebony sheen is a panoply of light refracted; the lid a glassy mirror of apparitions both emerald green and pale straw, the hues beguile as if rendered in watercolour. Up to eight spraying procedures with polyester coating in the factory are necessary to achieve this, after which it is set aside to dry for two weeks before being polished by hand.

Known as ‘The Salon Grand’, the seven foot Model 214 was designed for medium-sized concert halls, and promised to offer ‘optimal sound transparency, sheer delight in playing, precision of touch, unsurpassed fullness of sound, dynamic control and a sustained tonal character that will be warmly applauded’. It seemed a perfect fit for UKARIA.

‘There were three pianos to choose from,’ Christoff Eggner recalls. ‘After my first contact with all of them, my heartbeat was for No. 7, and this impression stayed the same and was easy to confirm after two hours,’ he told Alison Beare. ‘The sound was the most noble and distinguished one – and I guess will be the most appropriate one for your concert hall. Further, the mechanic is extremely reactive and sensitive to play: it will be a joy for everyone!’

An instrument thus selected, it was time for our Founder and Director Ulrike Klein and CEO Alison Beare, who were in Austria for the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, to visit the factory before the piano was boxed up to begin its voyage to Australia. To stroll through the Bösendorfer factory is to bear witness to a profound process of creation and craftsmanship. From the woodworking and construction of the cast iron plate, to the thousands of individual parts that comprise the action, to finalising and voicing and the construction of the inner rim, and then finally

“After my first contact with all of

them, my heartbeat was for No.7…”

But like the best of instruments, it has both sheen and substance. I start with Chopin, and then pass on to Mozart. The action silky and obliging, everything comes out clearly, and my fingers achieve a new kind of assuredness.

Like a Fazioli, it has incredible sensitivity, yet surprisingly is more approachable than its Italian counterpart, allowing a pianist to quickly recalibrate their tonal control without necessitating hours of rehearsal time at the instrument. It has a particularly sweet mid range, while its upper keys produce a strikingly mellow sound. Like all Bösendorfers, our piano has that distinctively rich bass, which, by virtue of its size, is warm and full without being muddy or overpowering. ‘At the beginning of the

bass string, the core wire is wound in the opposing direction by hand with flatly rolled copper wire,’ Bösendorfer write in their brochure. ‘This special method of bass string production, which produces unique sonic properties, can be found only at Bösendorfer’.

I’m having way too much fun when Konstantin calls to tell me he’ll be there in a few minutes, and although it’s beautiful to play, I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like from the back of the hall when someone of his calibre plays it. He begins with Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No.6, and I’m not quite prepared for the sound that envelops the hall. It has richness; a range of nuance and colour that is remarkable.

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‘I think it’s a good choice for this size, because imagine if it was a Steinway D for instance. It would be too loud – definitely. You’d always have to pull back,’ he says. He moves on to some Prokofiev, and then Chopin’s Nocturne in G major, Op.37 No.2.

‘Can you play something?’ he asks. It’s not everyday a musician of his calibre asks you to play something, so what can I say? I sit down at the piano, and play what I’m most comfortable with: Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27 No.2. To my surprise, I’m not nervous, a feeling that’s inexplicable but somehow not strange. I marvel at the instruments capacity to produce those elusive hushed pianissimos, relishing in the seductive compulsion to teeter on the brink of audibility. I end up playing better than I had imagined.

‘Mmm…I like it. It’s very bright,’ Konstantin tells me. Even at seven feet the sound radiates right to the back of the hall, and there is no longer any doubt as to whether a piano of this size was the best choice. It is a perfect fit, the piano enhanced by the acoustic and the acoustic enhanced by the piano.

‘Every piano is different,’ he says. ‘Sometimes Steinway can be not the most comfortable, but at some point, you get the key for it, like something you unlock. And you don’t do anything, you just sort of conduct your hands and the piano plays itself, and that is the best feeling ever! ’

However, throughout the half hour I listen to Konstantin, there is never a desire for a richer bass or a greater clarity or a sweeter mid range. It’s all there.

‘It has a big sound for this size,’ Konstantin says. ‘Usually at this sort of size, with shorter strings, they start to bang. This one has good full tone. When you were playing soft it does carry through, it doesn’t have a sandy sound,’ he tells me. Relieved, I hand the piano back to him and head back up into the stalls to take some more photographs. He continues, trying out some Scarlatti. At just a few months old, the piano is still young, and like the finest of wines, it will take a little while to reach full maturity. ‘In the beginning, every piano is a bit stiff. Usually pianos reach their peak in about eight months to one year, like the perfect condition – when they get played,’ he tells me.

He starts playing the opening bars of Tchaikovsky’s Troika Ride (November) from The Seasons, and then stops, laughing. ‘You know this?’ he asks. I nod in the affirmative. So quintessentially Russian does it sound that you can’t help but let out a laugh. It’s not too long after that he decides what he’ll play for his solo recital next year on Sunday, 14 May 2017.

‘Very good for Mozart I would say. But the atmosphere of it…I think I’ve made up my mind – Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. It would perfectly fit this – especially if the weather is like this! ’ he beams. I couldn’t agree more.

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For our first official piano recital on Sunday 13 November 2016, we invited internationally acclaimed Australian pianist Piers Lane - the current Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition - to officially christen our new Bösendorfer. He performed an electrifying program including Mozart’s Sonata in B flat major, K.333, Beethoven’s immortal Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’, a selection of Carl Vine’s The Anne Landa Preludes, Chopin’s Ballade No.3 in A flat major, Op. 47, and concluded with Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli.

The first half of the program gave the piano the chance to clearly show its Viennese birth right. The Mozart was clear and bright, giving credence to Konstantin’s previous remarks, and Piers gave such a scintillating performance of Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ that the capacity audience couldn’t help erupting in thunderous applause. The concert elicited a well-deserved standing ovation, and received an excellent review in The Advertiser.

‘It’s a beautiful piano,’ he told Alison Beare and myself backstage after the concert. That afternoon, he posted on his Facebook page:

‘This afternoon I had the inestimable privilege and pleasure of giving the first recital on the new Bösendorfer at UKARIA, the intimate, year-old, glorious concert hall at Ngeringa near Mount Barker in South Australia. The whole area is supremely beautiful and UKARIA something very special.’

In response to a comment asking how he found the new Bösendorfer, he described the piano thus:

‘It needs playing in more, of course, but this new action is fabulous (Liszt Tarantella repeated notes no problems) and suited Mozart and Beethoven wonderfully. Lots of colour and range – I liked! ’

To have such an illustrious pianist make such remarks about UKARIA and our Bösendorfer is truly touching. One can hardly wait to hear what it sounds like upon reaching its prime, which seems likely to fall serendipitously around the time when Andrey Gugnin, the winner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, will make his debut at UKARIA Cultural Centre in August 2017.

Dylan Henderson is the Communications Manager of UKARIA.

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