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This lavishly illustrated book tells the remarkable story of the Steinway company and its founding family. Heinrich Steinway emigrated to America at the age of fifty-three with his large and talented family and founded Steinway & Sons, which was to become the builder of premium pianos in America.?

Ronald Ratcliffe has spent ten years researching the Steinway story. His fascinating text, supplemented with over 100 color and duotone photographs, documents the history of the piano in America, where the technical innovations of successive Steinway family members set the standards for the modern piano.

He reveals as well the amazing business and marketing sense that characterized the Steinway company from the beginning, bringing it financial success and worldwide acclaim for its instruments. There are photographs of the famous pianists who promoted Steinway pianos: Anton Rubinstein, Ignacy Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, and Vladimir Horowitz. There are also photographs and drawings of the most flamboyant customized piano cases, for such clients as Liberace.

THIS IS THE REMARKABLE STORY OF STEINWAY AND SONS, builders of the premium pianos in America for the past century. The large and talented family of German immigrants founded their workshop in 1853 and had assumed a prominent role in the social, political, and cultural life of New York by the latter half of the nineteenth century. The craftmanship and the technical innovation practiced in the Steinway fctory set the standards for the modern piano and brought phenomenal acclaim for thier instruments.

Great business acumen characterized the Steinway management from the beginning and extended through four generations of the family. The mutual succes of famous pianist in promoting the Steinway piano and Steinway & Sons in promoting artists brought Anton Rubenstein, Ignace Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, and many others to concert halls across America. Steinway Artists ominated musical performance in America from the turn of the century.

To accomodate the popular taste for instruments in elaborate cases, Steinway & Sons established the art department originally headed by a member of the Tiffany family. Color photographs and watercolor scetches record many of the most flamboyant pianos commissioned by customers in historic furniture styles that range from tasteful to bizzare.

This lavishedly illustrated volume is the complete history of the Steinway piano and the only one authorized by the firm. It is a fascinating document of an important cultural artifact snd a beautiful record of craftmanship.

This is the complete book on the Steinway piano and the only book to be authorized by the Steinway company.

The book was 50.00 new but is now out of print. You may still find it in a bookstore or

ISBN 0-87701-592-9 and available at: www.abebooks.com/

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