“The Steinway Spectacular
Get ready for an evening of unprecedented virtuosity when eight of Australia's leading pianists perform the most compelling works ever written for piano on eight Steinway Concert Grands in The Steinway Spectacular - for one performance only.”
This reminds me of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 where they had myriads of identically dressed pianists playing Gershwin on myriads of identically-looking white (yuk..) grand pianos. I wonder if they were Steinways too?
Yes, its great that Steinway are paying lots of money to get lots of pianos on stage to be played by lots of pianists, both in Melbourne and Sydney, and they’re obviously paying lots of money to promote and underwrite the event which is a good thing for the average music lover in Australia, even though the publicity blurb for the occasion is somewhat over the top. But I suppose that’s what you’ve got to do to put bums on seats these days so maybe I shouldn’t be too critical.
Now I’m undoubtedly going to get lots of flak for this, but in my view it’s a crying shame that Steinway need to go to this extent to market their products. Are people, as a result of this, going to rush out and buy a Steinway? I doubt it. I would judge that this is simply a brand recognition / reinforcement exercise in the face of mounting competition within the industry. We have seen many so-called ‘quality’ European manufacturers go to the wall or else forced to manufacture off-shore in order to compete in today’s market and I don’t doubt that Steinway (or any other manufacturer of ‘traditional’ pianos for that matter) are feeling the pinch.
The problem with that of course is that the cost of this and other marketing exercises gets added into the cost of the instrument. So…
• How much of the cost of a Steinway is the piano, and how much is marketing?
• How much is dealer markup and profit?
• If you buy one of these are you really getting the musical and investment value you think you are?
• Is this why second hand Steinways are considerably cheaper than new ones?
I suspect you could replace ‘Steinway’ with any other brand and the questions would still be valid.
The hype surrounding the selection of pianos amazes me. Take this snippet from the Sydney Morning Herald this morning concerning the selection of a new piano for the Sydney Opera House.
“The decision to go with a Steinway, rather than one of the other major brands, such as Kawai or Yamaha, or an Australian-made Stuart piano, was made in consultation with the Sydney Symphony, the main hirer of the Concert Hall.
A venue like this is expected to have Steinways. That's what everyone wants to play on"
Is it really? Wants to? Or expects to? Or is conditioned to?
Isn’t it about time we broke down these stupid barriers that maintain the status quo for no other reason than to maintain Steinway’s perceived (and in many people’s views, erroneous) position in the piano kingdom?
Food for thought, I think.