C Bechstein

C. Bechstein is a prolific German manufacturer of pianos, established by Carl Bechstein in 1853 and headquartered in Berlin. Many distinguished composers and pianists favored Bechstein instruments, from Franz Liszt and Edvard Grieg to Maurice Ravel, Hans Von Bülow, and Béla Bartók. The company formally launched in October 1853, when Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Bechstein (1826—1900) opened his "C. Bechstein Pianoforte-Fabrik" in Berlin. The new enterprise soon proliferated, directly competing against leading manufacturers by 1870, like Bösendorfer, Steinway & Sons, and Blüthner. In 1886, Carl Bechstein earned a prestigious "Royal Warrant" as Queen Victoria's piano supplier in the UK. He soon opened a London branch, which flourished with orders from the local aristocracy, concert venues, and British foreign embassies. By 1890, C. Bechstein had showrooms in Paris, Vienna, and Saint-Petersburg. Back in Germany, Carl Bechstein oversaw the construction of the third factory in Kreuzberg, inaugurated in 1897. After Carl passed away in 1900, his three sons took over the family business: Edwin Bechstein (1859—1934), Carl Junior (1860—1931), and Johannes "Hans" Bechstein (1863—1906). The company launched Bechstein Concert Hall on Wigmore Street in May 1901, spending £100,000 on naming rights (over £10 million in today's currency). Over ⅔ Bechstein instruments went on export, supplying royal families and nobility in Russia, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Denmark. This overreliance on foreign clientele backfired significantly during World War I, as the company lost business and property across Europe and abroad, most severely in Britain. Bechstein's royal warrant to King George V was annulled with all London assets, including the Wigmore St showroom with 140 pianos and the Concert Hall, seized in June 1916 as "enemy property." (Debenhams relaunched the venue as Wigmore Hall in 1917.) In 1923, C. Bechstein was listed on the stock exchange, and the oldest brother, Edwin, who quit the company a few years earlier over the disagreement with Carl Jr., returned as a major stakeholder. Edwin and his wife, Helene Bechstein (1876—1951), née Capito, were among the most passionate and vocal supporters of Adolf Hitler. In 1930, C. Bechstein introduced one of the earliest electric pianos, the Neo-Bechstein, equipped with electromagnetic pickups and developed in collaboration with a renowned German physicist, Walther H. Nernst (1864—1941), and Siemens-Reiniger-Veifa mbH. The company suffered devastating losses in World War II, with the Berlin factory destroyed in air bombings. By late 1951, de-nazified "C. Bechstein Co." resumed the production of new pianos, celebrating its 100th anniversary with a concert at Titania Palast in November 1953, featuring Berliner Philharmoniker under Wilhelm Furtwängler's baton and Wilhelm Backhaus on Bechstein piano. By the late 1950s, C. Bechstein increased the production to around 1,000 pianos annually. Notably, the USSR State Ministry of Culture became one of its wholesale clients, ordering many grand pianos for the Leningrad Conservatory, Moscow Conservatory, and other major Soviet philharmonias. In 1963, an American manufacturer from Cincinnati, Baldwin Piano Company, purchased the entire 100% stock of C. Bechstein. The business changed ownership several times, acquired in 1986 by a German entrepreneur and piano maker, Karl Schulze (b. 1948). In 1992, he launched a new factory in Seifhennersdorf, Saxony, and introduced an entry-level series of pianos, "Zimmermann." In 1996, C. Bechstein went public. Between 2003 and 2009, the company had a strategic partnership with Samick Musical Instruments Co, a notable South Korean musical instrument manufacturer. In 2007, Bechstein established a new C. Bechstein Europe subsidiary, launching a factory in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, primarily to build mid-range "W. Hoffmann" pianos. Today, the company's major shareholders are Karl Schulze, his wife Berenice Küpper, and Arnold Kuthe Beteiligungs GmbH group. [u]List of notable C. Bechstein musicians[/u] ✥ Alexander Scriabine owned the Bechstein concert grand piano, still used in recitals at the Scriabin State Memorial Museum in Moscow, Russia. ✥ Sviatoslav Richter, who later endorsed Bösendorfer and Yamaha pianos, learned to play on Bechsteins. ✥ Claude Debussy ✥ Wilhelm Kempff ✥ Walter Gieseking ✥ Jorge Bolet ✥ Leonard Bernstein ✥ Tatiana Nikolayeva chose Bechstein for her acclaimed J.S. Bach performances ✥ Dinu Lipatti made numerous Chopin and Beethoven studio recordings on Bechstein pianos ✥ Edwin Fischer, as heard in his pioneering rendition of The Well-Tempered Clavier ✥ Artur Schnabel recorded Beethoven's piano sonatas on Bechstein ✥ Shura Cherkassky ✥ Vladimir Sofronitsky ✥ Władysław Szpilman ✥ Oscar Peterson ✥ Bob Dylan, who regularly performed on Bechsteins, including his iconic ABC Theater Concert in Edinburgh in May 1966 ✥ David A. Stewart of Eurythmics ✥ Elton John played a custom white C. Bechstein piano in Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word music video ✥ Trident Studios in London had a Bechstein piano on the premises until the mid-1980s, which can be heard on numerous iconic songs in rock and pop history, including Hey Jude by The Beatles, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Queen's Seven Seas Of Rhye, David Bowie's Life on Mars?, Lou Reed's Perfect Day, Carly Simon's You're So Vain, Nilsson's Without You, or Supertramp's Crime Of The Century.