Collection: Steingraeber & Söhne Mozart Rail

Mozart Rail®: The Performance of a Fortepiano, today.

Steingraeber’s new features can often draw upon earlier variations of design features, such as the Mozart Rail® (DGB 20 2014 003 845.7), employed either as hand pedal or knee lever. In this instance, key depth in the grand pianos is reduced to 8mm, and distance from hammer to string is shortened to 36mm, making softer pppp articulation possible, together with quicker repetition.

The resulting instrument is faster and more ‘Mozart-like’, with a tone that is both small and silvery, but also more sustained.

The Mozart Rail is available in two different versions: a knee lever to use it while playing or a hand rail to adjust it between 8 and 10 mm before starting to play. George Steingraeber developed this pianissimo pedal in 1894 and it was also used by Engelbert Humperdinck.

The key-dip became deeper and deeper through three hundred years of piano history; starting under 5 mm it went down to more than 10 mm today – a real challenge for pianists! Due to the Mozart Rail, pianist are able to perform authentically, as in historic fortepianos.

Many artists are enthusiastic about the Mozart Rail and record CDs with it. For example, the German pianist Martin Stadtfeld released his CD  “Chopin +” in November 2016 which was released by Sony Classical. For many pieces he makes use of the Mozart Rail.

The French pianist and professor Anne Le Bozek said in 2015: “Everyone from my class, piano students and singers, without any exception was extremely enthusiastic about the D-232. (…) The Sordino was well appreciated and even better the Mozart Rail to reduce the key dip. There were lots of trials with Mozart and Haydn. I’d know how to use that piano for an extensive benefit of my class.“

The French pianist Cyril Guillotin recorded a double CD “Clair Obscur” in the Steingraeber Haus, “which should inspire anyone who deals with piano sound” (Cit .: Carsten Dürer, Magazine PianoNews). Guillotin compares the technical possibilities of historical fortepianos with those of our concert grand piano E-272 with Sordino and Mozart Rail.

Hugh Sung – pianist, author, techie and entrepreneur – tested the Mozart Rail and other innovations at the NAMM Show 2017 in the U.S.

Pianist Ratko Delorko during the Musikmesse trade fair 2014: „It’s a huge benefit for the pianist because you can now do things that will not work on a normal grand piano – just because the distances are different.“