Piano: The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand

I am a pianist and was recently given a copy of this book. It is well-written with many fascinating stories that are of interest to anyone, but particularly to pianists who want to understand the mystique and history of the Steinway Concert Grand. This book follows a particular piano through the approximate 11 month period that it take to build the instrument. It describes the worksmanship involved in lucid detail that anyone would appreciate. This title also presents an interesting history of the ups and downs of the company. Any pianist or music lover would certainly appreciate this engaging book. It certainly raised my awareness and appreciation for why these instruments cost so much and sound so great!

This book is an edited expansion of a series of articles in the NY Times about the building of a Steinway grand piano. Riveting descriptions of all the talented workmen with their specialties in forming every part of this complex product. Story goes all the way to the west coast forests where the proper wood is chosen. The history of the Steinway company is woven into this description. Highly recommended to piano lovers.

Piano: The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand, by James Barron, a gifted reporter for the New York Times, is an engaging well-written book. Barron's writing is urbane without pretension, articulate and always a sensitive match to his topic. The book has a multi-tiered structure, pursuing at one level the construction of a Steinway grand from beginning to end, including the suspense about its final destination and use. At another level is the fascinating history of the Steinway family, the Steinway company, history of the pianoforte --- sprinkled with glimpses of New York real estate and social history, and fascinating stories about composers and noted performers. The story of the piano's construction gives personal stories about each of the workman as the piano moves through its various stages, giving insights into current social and economic issues. The treatment by Barron of the workers and Steinway personages is as sensitive and caring as his treatment of the book's subject, the K0862, aka the CD-60.

I was afraid I was going to dread this book. I have absolutely no interest in building things or taking them apart, and I feared it was going to read like a really technical how-to manual. To my delight, it is not like that at all. PIANO reads like a novel or a good biography. It introduces the people who made that one piano and the people before them who designed it, and it talks about how that one piano turned out. I don't think you could do a book like this about other "machines"---for example, an airplane or a dishwasher. A piano is terribly mechanical, it turns out, but it's really an instrument. It has its own personality--different from every other piano ever made. I thoroughly enjoyed PIANO.

The best thing about this book is that it actually makes riveting reading. I read it from cover to cover like one would a good novel and was disappointed when I got to the end. This is because it is written well and clearly, and the author brings in just enough of his own personal experiences and anecdotes to make it seem real and human. This book may be less meaningful to you if you are not a piano player, but I'm not a piano player and admit to a secret life-long curiosity about how pianos work. James Barron includes so much atmosphere and quirky character in his book "Piano - The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand" you will be as charmed as I was whether you know one note from another or not. This book not only demonstrates why each piano is as individual as a person, but also contains charming descriptions of the scores of people involved in its birth and development into a grand concert stage presence. This is a real treat of a book to curl up with in an armchair, and afterwards you will find yourself never looking at a piano in the same way again.