Piano Congress 2025 - "Discover the Piano" - Warsaw September 25-28 before the great Chopin Competition begins
Piano Congress 2025 - "Discover the Piano"
Film screening 'The soul of a piano'
This was a deeply moving film and quintessentially Polish!
The Piano Congress featured the documentary film 'The Soul of a Piano' directed by Judyta Fibiger.
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| Gustaw Arnold Fibiger (1912-1989) |
Does a piano have a soul? If so, what is it? Is it elusive – or maybe its creator is a piano constructor? One of them was Gustav Arnold Fibiger, born in Kalisz in 1912. His passion for creating instruments survived even when his family factory was taken away after the war.
Who was he? A Pole with German roots who fought to defend Warsaw, a great patriot, but also the only piano constructor in Poland who led to the development of the music industry in our country.
'The Soul of a Piano' is the story of the Arnold Fibiger Piano Factory, founded in 1889 in Kalisz – the largest Polish piano factory. The documentary featured unique archival materials showing the nationalized factory, whose name was illegally changed to 'Calisia' after the war by the communist authorities.
Kalisz is also particularly close to academy award winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, which is why he agreed to appear in the film.
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek: It was great that Gustaw Fibiger, even though the factory was no longer his property, was able to enter this world, no longer run by himself, and serve the idea of the perfect piano or grand piano. This was extraordinary. Only people with great hearts, great spirits, can serve an idea with such devotion. This idea was so deeply planted in him that he served it. I am not surprised that a man of great passion will continue to do so, despite the fact that circumstances have changed, because there is still hope and persistence in him to help this idea, to make these pianos better and better, to make them reflect this ideal world that can be conjured up from them somewhere. For me, this is a manifestation of Gustaw Fibiger’s extraordinary personality.
Kalisz and the old Fibiger factory is now the largest piano restoration centre in Poland.
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| A restored Arnold Fibiger Concert Grand Piano |
Events accompanying the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition
Eminent Panel: The Art of Performance
Jan Blecharz, Leslie McAlister, John
Sloboda • Moderator: Cezary Sanecki
A
conversation about audience engagement practices: stage psychology,
communication, concert formats; examples of good practice.
14:30
- 16:00
AUDITORIUM
September
26 (Friday)
I attended this most informative discussion. There was much discussion of the similarities between piano performance and muscular training in sport which did not appeal to this aesthete too much ! Rest during practice sessions was considered of great importance. One of Jan Blecharz 's students took a short nap between practice sessions that themselves lasted only an hour if that. There was discussion of the state of the audience psychologically and that of the pianist so that every performance was different.
Leslie McAlister spoke of the importance of the dovetailed alliance of personal musical values of members of the audience and the pianist if a deeply satisfying musical experience was to be experienced by everyone involved. He spoke of profound musical experiences when playing alone but emphasized the importance of communication between pianist and audience. He spoke positively of the pianist speaking to the audience and thus engaging them more intimately during a performance.
The influence of experience in
playing historical instruments on interpretations on contemporary instruments
Prof. Hubert Rutkowski
The
influence of experience with period instruments on contemporary performance:
interpretation, technique, stylistic awareness.
Prof. Rutkowski is the artistic director of the Chopin Festival in Hamburg and the initiator and director of the International Teodor Leschetizky Piano Competition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. In 2010, he won the competition for a professorship at this university, becoming one of the youngest professors in Germany. Since then, he has taught his own piano class.
Since 2014, he has been the head of the Piano Department at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. He is also the founder and president of the Teodor Leschetizky Music Society in Warsaw.
I found this paper of particular interest as it involved not only information but illustrative examples of various historic pianos. The evolution of the instrument was also clarified. This process of development was under the pressure of composers of new ground who explored new possibilities of expression in their compositions.
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Prof. Rutkowski first played us a recording of the great artist Ely Ney (1882-1968) playing Beethoven on his last instrument. The expressive nature of the interpretation in terms of the unique parameters listed below was prevalent on nineteenth century instruments. Character, phrasing, varieties of articulation, colour and use of the pedal (too often neglected today with the homogeneous perfection of modern concert instruments) were uniquely exploited on all the period pianos and pieces presented in this paper. |
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| Opening of the Waldstein Sonata |
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Alfred Brendel dealing with the dense musical complexities of the Beethoven Sonata No.32 Op. 111 |
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| Prof. Rutkowski playing Chopin a Pleyel once owned and used for teaching by Chopin Far more on the discovery of this instrument presented by Prof. Rutkowski and Tomasz Ritter (winner of the 1st Chopin Piano Competition on period instruments), performing and speaking here: http://www.michael-moran.com/2025/08/the-pianist-on-square-dorleans.html Pianos of Chopin's students Ewa Sławińska-Dahlig A lecture dedicated to the pianos of Fryderyk Chopin's students. We will learn about the unique features of the pianos played and composed on by Adolf Gutmann, Thomas Tellefsen, Karol Mikuli, and other followers of the Chopin tradition. We will also explore how the choice of piano influenced the development of talent, playing style, and the future of young musicians in the Romantic era.  This was a fascinating presentation. It is well known that Chopin had a preference for Pleyel pianos, the ne plus ultra he called them. One must remember the Pleyel is a conservative instrument in comparison to say the Erard, eminently suitable for the intimate, nuanced and subtle recitals that suited Chopin's introverted temperament. With its single escapement mechanism, he needed to 'work' to produce the tone and perfect touch, the intimate, poetic sound he envisaged for many of his compositions. However, many of his students seemed to prefer other instruments to the Pleyel.  The other brands of piano that Chopin played and praised. One must remember that there were national differences in the sound of pianos as well as differing designs  Some of the more talented and prominent of Chopin's pupils  ['I currently want to leave the Pleyel and rent an instrument from Érard (an old Parisian saying goes: Stradivarius violin and Érard piano stand on equal footing), but that also costs 25 francs.' Letter to family, October 4, 1842] Thomas Tellefsen (1823-1874), a highly distinguished, outstanding Norwegian pianist and composer from Trondheim, studied with Chopin for four years. Chopin immediately recognized his Norwegian pupil's talent and unusually met with him three times a week for the price of a single lesson. He became as close a friend as was possible with this emotionally complex composer and was considered to have absorbed his rubato to perfection. After the death of Chopin, Tellefsen adopted most of his students and prepared the first comprehensive edition of the Polish composer's works.
 However, he wrote this in a letter to his family in 1843 '[Erard] (…) last week proposed to me that I should come to his atelier and play on his excellent pianos every day from 8 to 11 – a permission which I make constant use of – for these are the finest instruments in the world and the foremost artists play in those salons.' Letters to the family, Letter of February 10, 1843.  Le Menestrel, April 20, 1843: “Carl Filtsch […], Chopin’s pupil, a marvel, a twelve-year-old child, a man of genius. The evening he gave in Erard’s salons was for us all an evening full of charm and delight (…). Carl Filtsch will undoubtedly travel, may he return to us, may
he work diligently, courageously, without allowing himself to be weakened by
praise (…).”
PLEYEL A tone warm, velvety, somewhat veiled; an action light and responsive, allowing for refined control of dynamic and articulatory nuance, with delicate shading of sound. ERARD A tone more powerful, more distinct, resonant and brilliant; incisive in projection, offering broader dynamic, tonal and technical possibilities that lend themselves to virtuoso display. The instrument allows for greater expressive range and clarity, producing an impressive and beautiful sonority.  She spoke about early methods of recording and sound reproduction. She then went on to highlight with rare documentation piano use by the greatest modern teachers and pianists, arguably including the paramount genius of Chopinists, Raul Koczalski          This was a fascinating and imaginative presentation. Panel: Historical Instruments: Original or CopyArtur Szklener, Hubert Rutkowski, Benjamin Vogel, Katarzyna Drogosz • moderator: Michał Bruliński Discussion on the value of originals and copies of historical instruments – artistic and museum perspectives.  This wide-ranging
discussion between renowned musical professionals was of great interest. The popularity of period instruments
(originals or copies) and performance on them has increased exponentially over
the last few years. The two Chopin International Piano Competitions on
period instruments mounted by the Chopin Institute is a case in
point. Some similarities with the world of classic cars,
their restoration, provenance and the value of replicas proved fertile
ground to explore, at least for me! I felt it an omission that the
brilliant builder and restorer Paul McNulty was absent from the panel as
he might have given some penetrating technical insights from his
extensive and much renowned and valued experience. Touch and Sound from Mozart to Artificial IntelligenceFanny Steingraeber From the era of Mozart to the present: keyboard shape and mechanics, materials, innovations, and the impact of AI solutions on touch and sound. Before covering Fanny Steingraeber's engaging presentation I first post her father's presentation at the Piano Congress 2022. A shining example of the attitude to possessing a working knowledge of the mechanism of this complex magic box is the great pianist Krystian Zimerman who can actually build a piano, regulate, maintain, tune and adjust it himself to his own demanding requirements. He prepared his piano with a Brahmsian tuning in a superb recital I heard in Berlin of the magnificent 3rd sonata in F minor Op.5 of Brahms. This knowledge is considered an eccentricity - not so. It is a highly intelligent decision and should be more widely disseminated as a necessity among pianos students. I believe this is already being done in Poland at, for example, the renowned Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków. This point was forcibly made during the talk I attended entitled: Historical features of piano touch and sound should be included in modern piano construction – a plea for a reinvention of lost registers and sounds Udo Steingraeber He began by indicating how composers determined the energetic development of the piano during the 18th and 19th centuries.The dominance of the composer-pianist was highlighted. As the century closed and the 20th century opened, the piano became increasingly less important as a vehicle of expression. Composers turned to alternative tonal and atonal methods of composition which no longer required them to express their creative thoughts through the piano. Its development slowed to a trickle and began to stagnate. Now technology has entered the picture which has led to new developments. Six pedals were available to pianists from Beethoven to Chopin – some (e.g. Beethoven) switched between different pianos because of different key depths . . . the goal of piano design should be to allow performers the maximum expressive possibilities in artistic interpretation. He also mentioned some matters of interest to Poland. Fryderyk Chopin briefly visited Bayreuth in 1836 but an account of his activities there are unrecorded. In the Warsaw opera house there is stored one of the rare Steingraeber bells of the Holy Grail used for the production of Wagner’s Parsifal. Some questions are posed. Do we piano builders in the 21st century really contribute enough to the maximum richness of variations? Or were our colleagues of the 19th century superior to us?
This fascinating talk was given by Udo Steingraeber, the 6th generation to head up Bayreuth’s piano manufacturer, Steingraeber & Söhne, where he also learned piano building. He studied law and theatre at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Eduard Steingraeber, the founder of the company in Bayreuth, was his great-great-great uncle. Between 1980 and 2009, Udo Steingraeber and the Steingraeber design team developed three new concert grands, various chamber and salon grands, and concert pianos. Most were for his own firm, but some, such as the new Pleyel grand piano 280, were commissions from colleagues in the piano industry. Since 1988, Steingraeber & Sons’ innovations have continuously won prizes at every Paris piano test of the top-flight instruments. Some were awarded independently, some jointly with the five, top-quality colleagues that comprise the small group of the world’s A-1 best manufacturers, as they are designated in the US rankings. Steingraeber & Söhne abides by his credo, 'The technical development of the piano is never completed as the musical development goes on as well'. The Steingraeber construction design team has created a whole series of innovative products that complement Steingraeber & Söhne classic pianos, which are built along extremely traditional lines. These innovations include e.g. carbon fibre soundboards, SFM actions for upright pianos, Sordino and Mozart rail for grand pianos, magnet-controlled pedals for wheelchair users and recently the Transducer piano. The company were generously giving away various free gifts which included a small white Meissen medallion with a profile of Liszt and on the reverse their magnificent 19th century period factory building. Also a CD (OEHMS Classics OC 453) featuring a modern Steingraeber Concert Grand Piano with the pianist Jura Margulis's invention or rather attachment of an expressive sordino pedal. In the 18th and 19th century depressing this pedal introduced a thin layer of leather or felt between the hammers and the string. This gave with pp and ppp '...a sound of distant beauty and intimacy, a sound of infinite tenderness and penumbrian light..' which cannot be achieved on the open string of a modern instrument. The CD presents some interesting transcriptions of Bach, Mozart, Puccini, Liszt, Schumann and Mussorgsky made by Margulis and a Piano Duo with Martha Argerich of the Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain. She enthusiastically endorsed this sordino addition calling it 'an inspired invention'. They also generously included a CD recording of pieces played by renowned artists on many of the different sizes of grand piano models they offer. I felt that the Steingraeber presentation was by far the most impressive display of modern instruments at the Piano Congress. There was even an upright piano with matt case, utilitarian finish and drilled with small holes, specifically designed for operatic rehearsals. Far more information is available on their website which I advise you to to examine. These pianos are endorsed by many famous players including Arcadi Volodos, Paul Badura-Skoda, Cyprien Katsaris, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Leif Ove Andsnes, Marc Andre Hamelin, Kit Armstrong.... With Udo's daughter Fanny in her presentation we then explored the extraordinary developments that Steingraber are introducing into their instruments, unlike any other manufacturer to the same degree.    She then discussed the 'Moderator' pedal, adopted from past fortepianos, which gives such an alluring texture to the sound. I mentioned a remarkable performance of Schubert's 'Wanderer Fantasy' given in Warsaw by Alexander Melnikov on a nineteenth century Brodmann fortepiano where the effect of the pedals transformed the work from a virtuoso piano work (Richter the benchmark performance perhaps) to an extraordinary, colourful and multi-textured wandering journey through different landscapes so beloved of Schubert. Marta Argerich was sufficiently impressed to make a demonstration CD (above) illustrating this wonderful device installed on a modern instrument       You might ask quite justifiably what the devil is a model of a mammoth doing on a piano music desk ? I found the answer absolutely fascinating. The ivory from elephant tusks is banned in piano manufacture. as I am sure anyone reading this must know, there are no more pianos manufactured with ivory naturals. However, there is no such ban on mammoth tusks and as the remains of these fabulous creatures have been revealed by the retreating ice cap and glaciers, a positive aspect of climate change, Steingraber have been covering the naturals with mammoth tusk! Inspired imagination !     The latest Steingraber Parsifal bells   You may find my coverage of the 2022 Piano Congress also of interest |
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