Pianomania

Pianomania

I'm quite a big fan of DVD documentaries, although oddly not a great fan of those shown on terrestrial TV. I suspect this is because those issued on disc are generally of much more interesting subject matter than those deemed worthy of airing to the modern dumbed down TV audience. Pianomania caught my attention when I first saw it as it was a chance to look into a  musical world that I'd never seen or particularly understood before.

The main subject of Pianomania is Stefan Knüpfer, chief technician and Master Tuner with Steinway & Sons.   Knüpfer looks after the maintenance of Steinway grand piano's in Vienna's grand concert halls and is involved in preparing them for concert performances and also classical recordings. Knüpfer is a master at his work but is a typically unassuming man, always ready to compromise in order to give his clients what they need. And what they need is the perfect tone.

Knüpfer's clients are thoroughbreds in the classical world, master musicians that I have never heard of but will be very familiar to fans of the genre: Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder, Till Fellner, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Japanese musician Lang Lang. All have different requirements of Knüpfer, but all wish to have the piano they are using to be tuned slightly differently so that they can play their parts perfectly.

What I didn't realise before seeing this, and probably should have done seeing as they're all handmade, is that Steinway Grand Piano's are not only numbered but also have their own individual characteristics so that to the expert, they all sound slightly different. Each client therefore hears the music or tone of the piano in a slightly different way, and it's up to Knüpfer to interpret what is required to enable each musician to be able to play the same piano's to their exacting specifications.

This is not an easy job at all. Some of the tuning can take over 6 months, as it does with Aimard who is due to record a classical piece on the Grand and has booked Knüpfer's services to help him prepare the piano many months prior to the actual recording. Knüpfer uses all the more usual musical tools of the trade but also has tricks up his sleeve such as using padding within the strings to see if that affects the tone in a positivie way - the only approval coming (or not) from the musician client. Tensions frequently arise - normally when either Knüpfer or the musician misunderstand what the other is saying or means, but also when Knüpfer thinks his piano sounds great after fine tuning it, only to be shot down in flames with a simple derogatory comment from the musician in question. It also doesn't help when the resident piano he is tuning for Aimard gets sold to Australia and he has to start again with its replacement, and the tension is racked up just by the unpacking and setting up the new piano.

Comic relief comes from both Knüpfer's sense of humour as he fails to get wound up by it all, but also from comedy duo Igudesman and Joo who parody the classical world and use Knüpfer's expertise for their sketches. It really is a pleasure to watch a master like Knüpfer at work, mainly because he seems just like any other workman with his unassuming and down to earth manner, despite his much sought after expertise and working for such a prestigious company like Steinway & Sons (and travels in a simple white van). The real joy is his passion to get his job right, often tuning to the nth degree or rethinking his whole strategy when a lesser person might just say "that's as good as it's going to get". His client is ALWAYS right and Knüpfer not only needs nerves of steel but the uneviable talent of translating the words of his clients into sound.

Pianomania is a gentle, humorous and warm film that studies the art of perfection with a rather brilliant but ordinary hero at the core.  Classical music fans will also not be disappointed as there are extended sequences that show the likes of Lang Lang and Aimard in action and quite frankly some of the piano playing is breathtaking. I'm sure looking on, Stefan Knüpfer always feels not only a sense of relief but immense pride at providing his clients with the musically perfect sound that they wanted for their performance.

Rather superb...