Happy New Year everyone! It is time for the first song of the week for the year of 2024 - a beautiful piece by Debussy. La Cathédrale Engloutie - or "The Sunken Cathedral".
It rates high on the top of my list of favourite piano pieces. The Sunken Cathedral is a melodic portrait of a cathedral in sacred solitary, submerged peacefully below the water. And this portrait is painted well; the ringing chords remind me of church bells as the notes seemingly float and rise whilst the melody drifts and wanders in picturesque sweeps. A truly inspiring, sublime piece by the legendary Debussy.
Joshua Wardle
]]>Turning a piano from an old wooden cabinet to a modern-looking black high gloss shine is a huge task to undertake, including dismantling, stripping and respraying the cabinet and reassembling the cabinet. But no job is too big for our workshop team!
The Marshall & Rose's journey has been recorded below. Take a look.
Joshua Wardle
]]>With veneer ripped off the cabinet like a half-peeled orange, this second hand Welmar grand needed a good fix-up. So our cabinet restorers got together, got their tools ready and got to work.
Their tasks involved wood repair using wood glue, replacing missing veneer with fresh new veneer, re-polishing the cabinet, giving it a revitalised finish and fixing any smaller repairs they came across.
Through dedication and skill, our cabinet restorers have proved yet again that, there is no job too difficult for them and that they are capable of truly bringing pianos to life.
And there it is - a job well done and another grand piano perfectly restored!
Our cabinet restorers revived this piano, granting it colour and life once again; the peeling veneer has been fixed, fresh, royal blue felt vibrantly decorates the piano and its majestic mahogany finish emanates with luxury and grace. Our cabinet restorers have made this Welmar into the dream piano of many a pianist!
Joshua Wardle
]]>This is a Beulhoff grand piano with a luxurious rosewood finish, rich with colour. We have been polishing this piano to perfection, giving it a marvellous cabinet revival treatment before we ship it to its new home.
Giving this grand piano a fresh appearance was not a small job. Required work included a full respray of the cabinet, brand new natural keys, sprayed sharp keys, polished brass, full regulation, tuning, voicing, polished strings and fresh new felts.
But no job is too big for our workshop team!
Need a restoration or revival? Get in touch with us for a quote.
Joshua Wardle
]]>At Shackleford Pianos, we restore all sorts of pianos back to life. We work with grand pianos, upright pianos, old and damaged. Sometimes, we get the opportunity to work with a treasure like this exquisite English square piano!
This piano was stripped of its damaged parts and instead remade them with our own high quality materials. Fresh felts, shiny new strings and more, all made by our technicians using new, finest quality materials. We even made the mahogany finish vibrant with life again - glowing, majestic mahogany and a repaired cabinet to impress all!
It has been a pleasure to work with this Collard & Collard square piano, and we have found the results equally as pleasurable. Complex vocal cords of strings, hammers and felts now brought back to life to sing once again. Aesthetically, it now has a skin of smooth mahogany enriched with colour and elegance.
Joshua Wardle
]]>At Shackleford Pianos, we work on many types of pianos, big and small. But what most people wouldn't expect to find us working on are a stunning pair of speakers!
Indeed, we don't just celebrate pianos - we celebrate music and sound in all forms. So when we had the opportunity to work on some new, unique speakers, it was a fantastic treat for our cabinet restoration department!
Chris Liauw's ingeniously designed Etude5 speakers are an outstanding feat of sound technology that provides a high quality of sound, a well-timed bass and brilliant realism.
All it needed was an excellent, shiny casework finish. That's where we come in...
Our piano restorers use the finest quality of polyurethane to make the very best high gloss finishes for our pianos. Polyurethane is not only good for pianos, but can be applied just as effectively to many other things - such as an Etude5 speaker for example. It was the job of our cabinet restorers to give the Etude5 speakers the very best black high gloss finish before it was to be revealed to the world!
After giving the speakers a majestically luxurious finish of black high gloss, our cabinet restorers were delighted with the result and we are all delighted to hear that Chris loved the finish!
It has been an honour and a treat to work with Chris on his state-of-the-art Etude5 speakers and we hope they will be enjoyed by many others - musicians and audiophiles alike.
You can find them on Chris's website here.
Joshua Wardle
]]>Our transport team at Expert Piano Removals has done an impressive piano transport job. After we sold a wonderful Welmar A2 upright piano, it was their job to deliver - all the way to the Isle of Bute in Scotland! You can see it safe and sound in its beautiful new home in the picture below.
As always, the customer loved the piano and, of course, the transport job was done efficiently and safely. Good work team!
Have a look at a few pictures we took as the Welmar went along its journey...
Joshua Wardle
]]>The grand piano restoration was a big job, and a lot needed to be done;
With professional knowledge and devotion, our team worked like worker bees, reviving the graceful grand. And once complete, they were rewarded with a piano emanating with a revived sound made wonderful once more!
You can see the job well done below.
Find the video on our YouTube channel here
Joshua Wardle
]]>You can see them below - Will (the one with glasses) and Joseph (the one with glasses).
Will Davenport Joseph Kaminski-Gaze
The trip included an exclusive tour of the Steingraeber & Söhne workshop, the Steingraeber house, a visit to the spectacular Margravial Opera House and even a visit to the house of the renowned composer Richard Wagner, which the city is famous for.
But first they had to get there - so they boarded their plane, sat back and relaxed - as much as you can on an aeroplane (babies etc.) - on their way to Germany.
And once they landed in Frankfurt, they had to board a train and sit back and relax - as much as you can on a high speed train (crowds, babies etc.) - on their way to the city of Nuremberg. When they got there, they sat. Waited. Boarded another train, and finally made their way to the lovely city of Bayreuth!
The scenery along the way was lush, vibrant and full of life - a wonderful landscape that made for some perfect photos and establishing shots.
Then they finally arrived in the cultural, historical and pristine city of Bayreuth.
Bayreuth is famous for its history. It is home to Steingraeber & Söhne pianos, the location of the magnificent Margravial Opera House and, most notably, where the composer Richard Wagner lived in 1872 until his death on a trip to Venice in 1883. His body was brought back to Bayreuth and buried there.
Franz Liszt also lived in Bayreuth and died there in 1886. Indeed, this city was the birthplace of many of his iconic pieces and has a deep connection to the world of music.
Our duo then made their way to the Steingraeber house, an impressive building and home to the Steingraeber family, owners of a piano company that excels far beyond most.
Upon entrance, they were greeted with what can only be described as a pianist's dream...
Inside, they found a splendid museum, containing treasures such as Richard Wagner's piano, the Gralsglocken - a unique instrument made specifically for Wagner's Parsifal performances and more.
If you, too, are an avid piano lover - the Steingraeber house and museum is the place to be, a must for musicians and pianists alike!
Above: An exhibition upright piano with its interior action revealed.
Above: A stunning exhibition grand piano made by Steingraeber, with a beautiful inlay.
Above: Richard Wagner's Steingraeber grand piano.
The two above: Franz Lizst's Steingraeber grand piano, with elegant cabinetry in an angelic white finish.
Above: The Gralsglocken, a musical instrument made specifically for Wagner's Parsifal performances. Find out more and watch it being played by Udo Steingraeber here.
Above: The Steingraeber house showroom
Next on their Steingraeber adventure, Joe and Will were given an exclusive tour of the Steingraeber workshop, so they could witness for themselves the astonishing craftsmanship and top-tier technology that creates such a spectacular sound within their apex pianos.
The tour of the workshop granted insight into every aspect of the Steingraeber method of piano building - true piano artisanship! Joe and Will were given access to the veneer room, regulating room, a peek into the spray booth and more.
The three above: The veneer room, containing shelf after shelf of high quality veneer for luxurious cabinetry.
Above: A state-of-the-art soundboard storage room, containing soundboards of the highest standard. Artisans at Steingraeber's workshop take additional steps such as tapping, thinning out and listening to the soundboard. This is to ensure that the soundboard produces that exceptional sound and frequency that Steingraeber & Söhne pianos are renowned for.
Above: The completed rim storage, where all of the the finished and perfected piano rims are stored for later use, when a fresh piano needs to be crafted.
Above: The regulating room, where the piano action playability is put to the test and made responsive to the touch.
Above: A professional standard pillar drill, used for numerous tasks such as drilling the shank holes or hammer heads in the action.
Above: A phenomenal Steingraeber action - among the best in the world - granting outstanding playability.
Above: Finalising the hammers for, a finishing touch that provides that brilliant sound Steigraeber is known for.
Above: An expert Steingraeber piano artisans sanding a grand piano fallboard.
Above: A deluxe, high standard Steingraeber frame and soundboard, glowing gracefully in the cabinet of a soon-to-be Steingraeber grand.
Above: An efficient, high quality sanding planer for sanding efficiently. A very expensive piece of machinery!
Above: A massive spray booth for professional spraying. This is where Steingraeber & Söhne pianos are made majestic and beautiful!
Above: Watch how the experts do it! Here is a Steingraeber piano technician at work, tuning a newly crafted upright piano.
Above: This handy tool is used to measure bass strings, allowing the Steingraeber technicians to use the correct length of string needed, and so that they can take measurements of string lengths.
Above: Here we have some of Steingraeber's piano artisans working together to build a grand piano rim. The clamps hold the piano rim in place as the heavy-duty glue helps it stick into place.
And finally, after all of the work is done, the result is something truly breath-taking - an inspirational work of craftsmanship in the form of a piano, shining bright with beauty and emitting a sound that will amaze. Whether a grand or an upright, the Steingraeber team will never fail to produce a piano of top-tier longevity and musicality that will always enchant the listener with its melodies.
During their visit to the Steingraeber workshop, Joe and Will also got the opportunity to learn more about Pianoteq in a talk by Philippe Guillaum, owner of the company.
Pianoteq has been working with Steingraeber on special transducers. These transducers can be installed on Steingraeber pianos and are used to generate any sound you like. If you wanted to, you could make your Steingraeber sound like a harpsichord!
Other possibilities include the ability to play in all temperaments, whether historical or non-European, can be used as a self-playing system, it increases the soundboard vibrations for a greater volume and much more.
You can read more about it here.
Our team of two was also lucky enough to get to visit the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth - a marvel to behold, built in a brilliant baroque style which people look upon with awe. The building is so extraordinary, in fact, that it is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Looking at the image below, you can see why...
The building was built according to the plans of French architect Joseph Saint-Pierre whilst its glowing interior was designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, a designer of immense talent from Italy.
Every corner is overflowing with decoration, colour and ornate features of the Baroque period. Take a look at that ceiling!
Above: Margravial Opera House structural model
Next up on their journey, Joe and Will went on a visit to the house of the world famous Romantic era composer - Richard Wagner. Wagner is loved and treasured throughout the world and is known for many classics in the music world - such as "The Ride of the Valkyries", "Parsifal", "The Flying Dutchman: Overture" and many more.
Richard Wagner moved to Bayreuth in 1874, where he lived until his death 1883. But his spirit still lives on in the town, and comes vividly alive once more during the Bayreuth Festival - a festival dedicated to the composer. It is held annually and celebrates the life and astonishing work of Wagner.
Above: The interior of Wagner's elegant house with one of his graceful grand pianos.
Above: A picture of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner in the Wagner museum.
Above: One of Richard Wagner's original scores
Above: The everyday streets of Würzberg
Above: A fabulous fountain flowing with water in the city of Würzberg
Now, the trip was coming to an end. But first, the two decided to visit the nearby city of Würzberg to have a look at another building - the Würzberg Residence. This ornate building shines like gold in the daylight and is a beautiful sight to behold!
The palace was built in the 18th century. Involved in its construction were Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, Maximilian von Welsch, Robert de Cotte, Germain Boffrand and the principal architect - Balthasar Neumann. The Baroque style palace had been completed for the Prince-Bishops of Würzberg who previously resided in the Marienberg Fortress.
Unfortunately, the palace had been heavily affected by allied bombing during World War II. Thankfully, it has been restored to its former glory and has been made a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its architecture.
Finally, it was time for the two to leave Germany and return home, with a newfound knowledge of all things Steingraeber, new experiences and, of course, bags of pretzels, beer and bratwurst!
Written by Joshua Wardle
Photography and filming by Will Davenport and Joseph Kaminski-Gaze
Photo Editing by Will Davenport
A special thanks to the Steingraeber family for inviting us to have a look at your amazing piano workshop and showroom in the music-rich city of Bayreuth. Joe and Will loved the visit and were grateful for the invitation.
]]>
This weeks song of the week has been picked by Chris Walden, one of our piano technicians. Debussy's Clair De Lune, or "Moonlight" in French, is a classic Romantic era song loved by many across the world.
Clair De Lune is loved by pianists and listeners everywhere and is a favourite amongst many. Chris says -
"My favourite piano piece is Clair De Lune by Debussy, it's a piece of music that I aspire to be able to play, it captures every tonal aspect of the piano and in my opinion is arguably one of the best pieces ever written for piano."
Joshua Wardle
]]>