Blüthner, 1867
Julius Blüthner started his company in Leipzig in 1853 and quickly became one of the leading piano manufacturers in Germany. This piano still has quite a few ‘fortepiano characteristics’, i.e. it is straight strung and the grain of the wood of the soundboard runs parallel to the strings, – details that only add to attractiveness of this beautiful instrument to the collection.
Miniature of Emile Stubenvoll by an unknown artist, ca. 1870
Restoration, 2013
The instrument turned up in Berlin where it must have been sitting on its side in the water for a long time, the veneer of the spine and the tail was missing and lost and many glueing joints were loose. Somebody painted the whole instrument black.
The pin block had been ruined by the thickest possible modern tuning pins.
A completely new pin block was made; the soundboard was taken out and taken apart in all the pieces it was made of, and was subsequently carefully rebuilt, using every original piece.
Recordings, a selection
Alpha-classics, Alpha 227
Wyneke Jordans & Leo van Doeselaar
Brahms 4 hands
Hungarian Dances, Liebeslieder-Walzer
Varations on a theme by Robert Schumann
Passacaille