piano duo

June 2018. I’m currently on the Westautobahn (motorway) on my way to Tyrol to tune the concert grand piano at the famous Villa Schindler in Telfs, most likely for the very last time. Annemarie Schindler, a great music aficionado and promoter of young and highly gifted musicians, has decided with a heavy heart to end her concert series after almost 25 years of hosting and organising unforgettable concerts.

Over the past nine years, I myself have become a great friend and admirer of these unique concerts, the outstanding artists and their equally wonderful hostess. The stories that I have been able to experience in connection with the concerts at Villa Schindler can hardly be put into words. And the concerts themselves often left me speechless and to this day I can recall many of them.

It must have been somewhere near Salzburg when my “farewell” feelings were interrupted by a phone call: “Hello Stefan, how are you? I’m planning a CD recording and wanted to ask if you might have a good grand piano for me”.

Fabian Müller, a young, highly gifted Aimard student and multiple prize winner of the 2017 ARD competition, loves spontaneous ideas.

“No, unfortunately,” I reply, “I no longer work for Steinway in Vienna and no longer have any pianos available”.

After a few minutes, our conversation ends – without a solution, without an idea.

For me, tuning is a form of meditation:

There I am, sitting straight in front of the instrument, my breathing is deep and calm, and my thoughts float freely yet at the same time I am extremely focused. Everything flows. And, as so often when tuning a piano, I have an idea, practically out of nowhere, an idea that is as crazy as it is normal, as simple as it is impossible. I’m still alone in the Villa Schindler and the lady of the house is due to arrive from Paris any minute. I can hardly wait to share my idea with Annemarie Schindler. Finally, the front door opens and the lady of the house enters the villa.

“Annemarie!” I run out of the concert hall to meet her, “I have an idea what we might do with your grand piano!”

She replies with a smile: "So do I”.

“You first, it’s your piano after all!” I reply impatiently.

“We’ll make the piano available to the artists.”

I am surprised and momentarily speechless. Most probably I am once again squinting my eyes slightly again as I always do when I play the offended creative who is deprived of the accolades for his ingenious idea. Clenching my teeth, I make a slow hissing sound:

“T____h____a____t____ ____w____a____s____ ____m____y____ ____i____d____e____a!”

We both laugh, greet each other warmly, and just two hours later Fabian Müller is offered the ideal grand piano for his new Brahms CD!

Up to this point, our project would have probably just been called “piano solo“. The idea for a second grand piano also arose from spontaneous madness.

It is Monday, October 28th, 2019, 6:50 pm.
Till Fellner and I are sitting at Annemarie Schindler’s Steinway, on the stage of the Wiener Konzerthaus. In a couple of minutes, the audience will be admitted to the hall. As I am finetuning the very last notes the pianist, with whom I have had a trusted working relationship for almost 20 years, asks me for a suitable instrument for his planned Beethoven piano concert the following year.

I am sitting in front of the instrument, leaning forward over the action. With a few soft yet swift pokes I try to align the last stubborn hammerhead to a tonal level with its felty neighbour.
When suddenly, without prior notice, there it is: the answer to the pianist’s question and at the same time the decisive idea for piano duo:

“The fact that you will be playing a grand piano tonight that you did not even know existed four days ago and which you have never played in a concert before is an incredible display of trust that I will never forget”. I turn back, speaking over my left shoulder, addressing the soloist: “But surely every madness requires intensification. Mr. Fellner, how would you feel about playing a grand piano next time that hasn’t even been built yet? I am thinking of acquiring a Steinway and we could build it in time for your concert – you only have to agree and say "yes"!"

“Yes” the answer came faster than the last stab in the hammerhead. Less than three hours and one brilliant piano recital later we agree to meet again. We will be building ourselves a Steinway! And “en passant” the idea for piano duo was born.

With this second brand-new instrument we aim to create an alternative of great tonal beauty, but with an entirely different character; for all genres, for concert halls and pianists whose requirements and tastes cannot be met by the older piano alone.

In order to inform artists and music lovers alike about our piano duo project, Annemarie Schindler and I decided to present our idea in a letter. If you have not seen it, then please read our letter here.