Steinway & SonsO-180

Steinway & Sons Model O — a New York-built grand from around 1915, 180 cm long, in black high polish.

For players who work seriously at home and want a Steinway with some age on it: advanced pianists, teachers, small halls, and anyone content to live with an instrument older than themselves.

The O is the large salon grand of the house. At 180 cm the bass genuinely carries without a concert grand standing in the living room, and the treble stays clear. Two pedals: the right lifts the dampers, the left shifts the action so the hammer strikes fewer strings. There is no sostenuto in the middle on this one — worth knowing beforehand if you play repertoire with a third pedal written into the score.

The piano is over a hundred years old and does not look it. The case has been professionally re-lacquered and brought to a high polish, the action properly regulated, and the hammer heads were renewed at an earlier date. We have tuned it twice. What survives all of that is the sound of an old New York Steinway: warm at the core, with real push behind it when you ask for it.

High polish shows every fingerprint, and a soft dry cloth kept within reach saves half the work. No glass on the lid, no water, no heat. It takes the floor space of a large dining table, plus room to sit and to open the lid, and it passes through an ordinary door only in pieces: legs and lyre come off, and it is carried by piano movers, not by friends. Keep it away from a radiator and out of the sun, since swings in humidity put any instrument out of tune, an old one first. If you practise late and the walls are thin, a Silent System can be fitted and you play on through headphones.