Behind the scenes of a piano concert, there is a figure as important as the pianist: the piano tuner. The chief technician of Steinway Austria Stefan Knüpfer shows the art of tuning a piano in order to adapt it to both the concert hall and the pieces the artist will play. In this case, the French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives a concert in Salzburg, in the large hall of the Mozarteum. He is about to play Mozart and Bartók, a challenge for Stefan Knüpfer.
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It is normal to hear about great pianists and their works. What is not usual is to hear about the technicians behind the piano, those who make possible the beautiful and clean execution of each note. The master Piano-Tuner Stefan Knüpfer, who has worked with pianists such as Lang Lang, began as an apprentice with Steinway & Sons. His work is not just to get the instrument in tune, but also to understand the different needs Steinway’s piano customers. Every pianist is different: everyone has their individual ideas and concerns about the sound and the way of playing, and sometimes, these wishes are the result of their particular physiology.
The technician has a painstaking work; the challenge of this concert is to tune the piano for a program that goes from Mozart to Bartok. Many times it is considered that the pianist has all the responsibility for the result of a performance, forgetting how important the quality of the instrument is and how well tuned it is.
An excerpt from the documentary of NZZ Format "The Piano - 88 Keys, 1000 Emotions". More from NZZ Format: / nzzformat