Heide Braun

Heide Braun, my colleague of many years in Vienna, was significantly involved in the repair of our piano duo main character "353018". I talk to her all about stage fright and a good memory, about goose bumps inside the concert hall and the life expectancy of concert grand pianos - as well as about a species that is becoming extinct. 

Ms. Braun, it was you who was the main player in the repair of our famous "353018" and you also appear in our slide show doing a lot of work on this instrument. Do you remember this grand piano?

Sure! Mostly I remember recreating the bridge pressure from my gut feeling the way it originally used to be. And the many cords it took to do that. These are definitely these two things I remember the most.

How would you explain "bridge pressure" to a layperson?

The bridge pressure decides with how much force the strings press on the bridge and the soundboard. This pressure has a huge impact on the sound. And on the freedom of the instrument in tone - if it fits.

Was the bridge pressure different over normal for this instrument?

Exactly. By having repaired it before, it was different than it should be normally. Previously, I had "just" copied all the bridges. But with this grand piano, I had to completely readjust the bridge.

So, that means there are no more measurements because they were destroyed during the first repair...but how do you restore the correct state if the one in front of you is wrong? How do you get the right result? Is it by chance?

That's gut feeling! Also, from experience, how the bridge pressure has been so far for other instruments. I remember, for example, that the distance from the bridge to the duplex was not right, even compared to other instruments. So, something must have slipped during the first repair. If we had just left it as it was and not changed it, the result would not have been as good.

Did you know at the time, when you repaired the grand piano practically by gut feeling and restored it to its original condition, that this was a grand piano having a very special history?

No.

Are you actually familiar with the story today?

All I know is that the piano had already been on a stage and had already been repaired.

I like to characterize the work on the bridge and soundboard as open-heart surgery, in which no doubt hundreds of great instruments die every year and irretrievably lose their sound. Have you ever been aware of your great responsibility, not only to the owners, but also - in this grand piano's case - to history?

At the beginning, during my first repairs, I wasn't that aware of it. Then I realized it over an instrument that I had to rework because it didn't sound so good in the treble. Ever since then I've been aware of it, and I've always had great respect for this work. However, the great thing is that I've never been afraid of it.

So, you never had stage fright or shaky hands?

Your memory is phenomenal. When I told you that each time, I tune this piano I have to look at a small black spot, a so-called branch, in the bridge and think of you, you were able to remember it exactly after 10 years. How can you remember something like that?

[laughs] Anyone who has ever handled a piece of wood with a branch will know that this wood is very difficult to work with and at this point will never look as perfect as it does to the right and left of it. However, disassembling everything again would not have been an option either. But I made it, except for this visible spot. And neither the height of the bar, nor the cleanliness of the work have suffered.

Does such an ability help you to be particularly sensitive to the instrument?

For a reader this is probably hard to imagine, yet you hear whether your plane iron is sharp, you hear whether a chip of wood blends in well with another piece of wood. In other words, in your work you work a lot with the sounds, with the tones that you produce, or that the material gives off.

Yes. As well. It is hard for me now because I work in a noisy environment. Then it's often like I'm missing a sense.

Are you able to tell if it's a particularly nice instrument before the repair?

Well, I'm not quite sure about that. I guess I'm still very much influenced by the unexpected things. When I press a key down and it clatters and squeaks - and the damper doesn't lift properly - it's very difficult to block all of that out and just listen to where the journey is going with the instrument. However, one can already hear whether the instrument sounds good and whether there is a tone length. Unfortunately, I must deny whether I can hear early on that it is an exceptional instrument.

What do you think is the most difficult part, the defining moment of a repair, where success or failure is determined?

One can definitely tell whether an instrument sounds good when it is tuned for the very first time. One knows whether everything fits together when one has adjusted and intonated for the first time. In terms of sound, I can therefore recognize relatively quickly whether it's a success, but I can only tell whether everything fits together when the customer plays it and when I see his reaction.

When, on the other hand, you hear that a concert grand piano today is reportedly no longer suitable for the stage after just a few years...

[Heide Brown sighs]

...may I first ask the question: What do you think?

I find that incredibly sad - on the one hand. On the other hand, I ask myself the question: How is this possible?

For many years, you have been repairing Steinway grand pianos from a wide variety of eras in Vienna. Would there be one lesson that you have learned from all these repairs?

I have learned that the mechanical use in the production has become more extensive. I could observe that quite well on the bridge and the soundboard. The instruments have become more perfect in purely visual terms.

Finding a craftsman's defect in an old instrument, you may say: "Yes, that's just craftsmanship".  Have you copied such imperfections in your repairs, or have you said: "I can do better than that!"?

[laughs] Good question! I have two answers to this: If there was a drill hole that was off, and you could also understand that the drill went off, then I naturally corrected this drill hole. Everything that concerns the contact surfaces of the strings on the bridge, their length, their position, I adopted that because the instrument had played like that for 20, 30, 100 years and sounded good.

Have you also personally taken something with you from "Life with the sounding wood"?

That might sound a bit pathetic now, but: It is satisfaction. I have done a job and it has given me joy. And I found a meaning in it. You learn to be precise, and you develop your vision. You learn to be able to realize what you want.  It took some preconditions, e. g. the workshop had to be reasonably tidy, otherwise I didn't feel comfortable.

You came all the way from Braunschweig to experience the comeback of our then 64-year-old grand piano in the Vienna Konzerthaus in October 2019. What was the feeling for you over the concert by Till Fellner, played on a grand piano that you played a major role in resurrecting?

[breathes deeply] Goosebumps - I really enjoyed just being in a cloud of sound. Simply joy. And a little bit of pride.

What distinguishes a beautiful grand piano for you personally?

And what is a beautiful sound for you?

Viewed unemotionally, a beautiful tone is a tone which sounds as long as possibl. A beautiful tone is one that has the greatest tonal dynamics possible, i. e. one that can not only play loudly and softly, but also shows different facets and nuances in the soft and the loud. And that the tone is as even as possible: if I play all the keys "forte", the forte is also consistently loud everywhere and has the same timbre.

How would you try to convince a child or teenager today to learn to play the piano?

Once I was called by a child who told me quite excitedly that he had opened the windows of an old car with a crank. By means of a crank! We must learn to marvel again! We can encourage enthusiasm by telling them what is behind a button, inside the casing. We need to arouse the appetite for this and the desire to try it out. We will then realize that you can do anything with a piano: When I'm angry, the piano is angry, and when I'm happy, then the piano is also happy.

And how important is the sound of the instrument?

Well, the sound is important. Yet I don't believe that sound alone will convince a child to play the piano. A piano must evoke some emotion in the child. It may be that the best friend also plays the piano, but I have no influence on that. The one thing I can influence is to go on a search with the child to find out what a piano sounds like. The best thing is to just take a tuning fork and listen to it when you put it in the air, or put it on the key, or hold it against the soundboard. That's my way of showing it. And I have often realized that children are gripped by it. And then they want to try out playing in the next step. What I don't know, however, is whether future piano builders are more likely to respond to this approach over potential pianists [laughs].

We know that there are far too few well-trained piano technicians around the world. What would it take to make this profession more attractive to young people?

The meaning of what they are doing should be obvious. Because when you know what you're doing and why you're doing it, it creates the incentive. It is not just a matter of setting any measurement. Nor is it enough to communicate that a job must be done, and someone must do it. Sure, it's a job. But it's more than just putting all the parts together for the 88 keys. That' s not what the pianists want, after all. A piano is practically interposed between the pianist's fingers and the ears of the listeners. A piano is not just a matter of having all the parts and adjusting the dimensions.

Through your job, both in repair and on stage, you have met major pianists. What would you say to people who claim that pianists "hear the grass grow" or are weirdos anyway? Have you met any weirdos?

[laughs] No! Since "crazy" is actually a compliment for me, I have met some crazy people. If you give those who claim that pianists are "weirdos" a task, but don't give them the tools to accomplish that task, they would be just as unhappy or dissatisfied. And if pianists ever have a desire, it is only because they depend on playing a good instrument. And even if the pianist is not satisfied with the piano bench and does not feel comfortable with it, there is nothing to be said against giving him another bench if he is more familiar with it and feels more comfortable with it.

What is your profession today?

As a master piano builder at Grotrian, I am responsible for training and I am head of the Sound & Tone department. In other words, I am working with the employees towards building beautiful instruments.

What is easier for you: repairing pianos yourself and making them sound or motivating people to build beautiful instruments?

It is certainly easier to repair pianos yourself! Although I can make a instrument beautiful. However, if I manage to have people who develop heart and soul for it and do well in this profession, then it's not only a beautiful instrument, but it multiplies. And that is, of course, also a motivation!

What is the key point to motivate a person to build beautiful instruments?

The people in my situation want to build beautiful instruments. Yet there are also framework conditions in a production that you must adhere to. And one cannot starve on a piano just for the beauty of it. And that's also difficult for myself, being able to find the balance between what's needed and where you want to go. It's a balancing act.

I assume that you work mostly with young people. Do you believe that people, despite all the distractions of today's life - smartphone, computer, Internet - take time to listen and look for the beautiful things somewhere? Do you believe that these people still exist today?

Yes! They're definitely still around! Of course, there are a lot of distractions around and a lot of noise. But simply doing something good for once is probably a basic need.

Looking at our profession, I not infrequently have the impression of belonging to a dying species. What do you wish for the piano manufacturing industry in the future?

Oh! Working together! In piano manufacturing, there are - as it feels - a lot of lone warriors who focus less on what they can do well and more on what their neighbor cannot do so well - and then discuss it in detail furthermore. That actually completely misses the point of the profession, which is to make customers happy and convey a positive emotion. I would wish for more tolerance here, simply to emphasize that it's okay to listen and to feel. For me, it would be very important to learn that again. Not just to plug in the measuring device, but to simply listen and feel. Then I believe the profession will continue to have its justification.

Ms. Braun, thank you very much for the interview!