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Pleyel designer piano on display in the showroom at Saint-Denis. (Photo: Gerry Hadden)
For the Global Hit, we visit Polish composer Frederick Chopin’s piano maker. Not an actual person — but a company, one that still makes pianos today. It’s called Pleyel. Its workshop is located in France, near Paris. Though Pleyel has a long history making instruments it’s had to make a new name for itself in recent years. The World’s Gerry Hadden visited the company’s workshop in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. Download MP3
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MARCO WERMAN: Finally today, we visit Polish composer Frederick Chopin’s piano maker. Not an actual person, but a company, one that still makes pianos today. It’s called Pleyel. Its workshop is located in France, near Paris. Though Pleyel has a long history making instruments, it’s had to make a new name for itself in recent years. The World’s Gerry Hadden visited the company’s workshop in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
GERRY HADDEN: At Pleyel’s workshop, 16 master luthiers and technicians craft grand pianos of the highest quality from scratch. The pianos’ casing, the hammers, the keys, its all hand made. Even the piano strings are wound by hand here. A Pleyel piano takes nearly a year to build. When they’re finished the sound better be exceptional, says luthier Virgine Boi-yay.
SPEAKING FRENCH
HADDEN: She says, we can’t let anything slide. We must maintain our identity in terms of sound. Later in the process, we can even customize the sound further for individual clients. We are very demanding. We put ourselves in the player’s shoes, trying to feel what they are going to feel when they sit at the piano. In a nearby sound proof room, another young luthier named Jefois tests a nearly finished model.
SPEAKING FRENCH
HADDEN: He says, the first time I played a Pleyel was some time ago when I was restoring an old model. But it wasn’t until I came to work here that I truly discovered Pleyel’s particular sound. The round and powerful bass notes, the clear high notes. Pleyel is the world’s oldest piano maker. Among its best known clients, Chopin, Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy. Pleyel also happens to be the last piano maker in France. Marketing Director Anne-Emmanuelle Kahn says about 20 years ago, the competition began closing its doors. She says Pleyel has stayed afloat by ditching its lower end pianos.
SPEAKING FRENCH
HADDEN: She says, because today there are 200 piano manufacturers in China. They produce 200,000 pianos a year. We can’t make that many or sell our pianos for the same price. A cheap, Chinese upright goes for about $2,000 new, well below Pleyel’s sticker price. To survive, the French company has gone for high-end design. For example, Pleyel’s latest grand appears to be floating at first glance. Its legs are made from transparent resin. In the showroom here there’s a red model with wavy white art-deco engravings. Another rests on a four-wheeled cart that looks like some sort of lunar vehicle. Kahn says these one of a kind designs are meant to break the somber mold of the traditional grand piano. And she says its working.
SPEAKING FRENCH
HADDEN: She says, these are for decorators and for demanding players. For people who consider the piano not just as an instrument but as art. These days people want their piano to reflect their lifestyle. We personalize them so that they become a part of their environment and give it personality. An expensive personality. A Pleyel designer piano will run you between 60,000 and 280,000 dollars. The company makes about 25 pianos a year and sells them all. For The World, I’m Gerry Hadden, Saint-Denis, France.
WERMAN: You can view Gerry’s slideshow of Pleyel pianos and take a tour of the workshop at TheWorld.org. From the Nan and Bill Harris studios at WGBH, I’m Marco Werman. Thank you for listening.
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