Stalin's Gift
Richard C. Morais, 09.15.03 ( Forbes.com)

Great Deal on a Estonia Concert Grand

Today's best value in grand pianos owes its origins to Uncle Joe.

Russian-born violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky and his American wife, Susan Roberts, a light soprano, demand the best. He owns and plays, for example, a 1717 Stradivarius worth $3 million. So a visitor to the couple's London town house might be surprised to find that the piano sitting in the living room is not a Bechstein, a Bösendorfer or a German Steinway. It's an Estonia.

Six years ago, when the couple went looking for an instrument to accompany their rehearsals at home, they were drawn immediately to the Estonia by its sound. Musicians love it, using such words as "sweet," "old-fashioned" and "romantic." What's more, the price was a bargain. "It was certainly competitive with more famous brands, which sometimes don't quite deliver what you expect," says Sitkovetsky. "This was a very good working piano."

The list price for the 9-foot Estonia Concert Grand is $75,000, roughly half the price of a comparable Steinway. Prices for the 5-foot-6 Estonia Studio Grand and the more popular 6-foot-3 Parlor Grand range from $21,402 to $31,206. (Piano dealerships typically offer customers a 10% discount off the suggested retail price.) Finishes come in everything from ebony to African bubinga.

For testimonials, Estonia can call upon such artists as Grammy-nominated pianist Marc-André Hamlin, who plays on a Parlor Grand Estonia. Neeme Järvi, chief conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, calls the instruments "one of the best-kept secrets in piano-making today." Irving Faust of Faust Harrison, a New York dealer and restorer of vintage American Steinways, Mason &Hamlins and Estonias, says of the latter, "This great piano is giving pause to a lot of other manufacturers, because they'll have to meet its standard if they want to survive."

Until very recently, however, it was the Estonia that was fighting for survival. The piano's origins go back to 1940, when Estonia (the country) was forcibly annexed by Russia. The citizenry of the beleaguered Baltic state, coerced into giving Stalin a gift, sent him a grand piano. Estonia's national tradition of fine piano-making spans 200 years.

Stalin's instrument was made by Ernst Hiis, an Estonian craftsman trained by Steinway in Hamburg. The tyrant so liked the piano that Soviet commissars decided in 1950 that Hiis should be given a factory, in which all other Estonian piano workshops were to be consolidated. From then on, Hiis enjoyed a near-monopoly on supplying the Soviet empire with newly branded "Estonia" grands, producing as many as 475 of them a year.

When Hiis died in 1964 the quality of the pianos went into a long period of decline. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall the factory was bought by its 130 employees, and by 1994 production had fallen to only 49 instruments a year.

Jump to New York, where in 1994 a gifted Estonian pianist, Indrek Laul, was getting his doctorate at Juilliard. Laul discovered that the piano of his homeland didn't have a U.S. representative. He persuaded a distributor to take it on. Henceforth, whenever Laul performed or cut a record he spent his pay buying out the stockholders of the Estonia factory, until he himself owned it outright.

Laul stayed on in New York to build the brand. Back in Estonia his choirmaster father has taken charge of quality control at the factory. And Laul's mother tests every piano before it gets shipped.

The Lauls have reinvested all profits in the business and have systematically redesigned and improved the piano. The mechanical innards, for example, are now made by Germany's Renner, the maker of the world's best hammerheads, shanks and flanges; the soundboard is made from Siberian white spruce. The resulting sound is attractively retro. "Most other piano companies go for bright, brilliant tones sounding through the orchestra," says Laul, 35. "We wanted to offer a piano that blended better with the orchestra and that when you sat down and played solo, you really enjoyed for its deep and mellow sound."

Great Deal on a Estonia Concert Grand

The Estonia piano is one of the world’s most limited production instruments, with only a little over 400 Estonia pianos hand-crafted each year. Estonia pianos are crafted in Tallinn, the capital city of the country of Estonia, just across the Baltic Sea from Finland.

Estonia pianos have a history dating back to 1893, yet the Estonia piano had been on of the best-kept secrets in the piano industry. Now the word is out with more than 200 newspapers nation wide reporting on the Estonia, with an article in Forbes magazine and with recommendations from countless teachers and technicians who have fallen in love with its rich warm romantic tone.

Immaculate workmanship and gorgeous casework are hallmarks of the Estonia piano.  Luminaries from Van Cliburn to Ray Charles have waxed poetic about the Estonia pianos. Estonia focuses all of its energies on making only grand pianos. Long the secret of Eastern Europe’s world-class concert artists, Estonia is now a favorite around the world.

The country’s low labor rate and old-world high quality workmanship, and the fact that we buy the pianos directly from the factory, make it a unique value.  Estonia is unique in the world of piano building, having at its helm a pianist with a PHD in piano from the world-renowned Julliard School of Music, Indrek Laul.  When we purchase European pianos from most other companies it is from a US distributor.  That distributor has an owner and sometimes a president, a general manager, district sales reps, etc.  All of these folks need to get their piece of each piano sold.  This causes one of two things, either a lessening of the quality of the materials used or a very large increase in price.  With the Estonia piano we buy it directly from Dr. Laul, owner of the company, cutting out all of the middle men and allowing us to buy a piano with world class components found in most pianos selling for 2,3 and 4 times the price of an Estonia.  The price of the Estonia piano is often times not much more than many mass produced Asian pianos.

One of our most respected technicians calls the Estonia piano, “the best bang for the buck.”  Visit us and hear and see why.