Documentation of historic grand pianos of Klassik Stiftung Weimar

It was an honour to document several important instruments of  Klassik Stiftung Weimar as part of a „KUR-Programm zur Konservierung und Restaurierung von mobilem Kulturgut (gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Bundes und die Kulturstiftung der Länder 2007-11)“ :

^*   source: https://suche.klassik-stiftung.de/#/details?id=/resources/id/object/museen/223349
^** source: https://suche.klassik-stiftung.de/#/details?id=/resources/id/object/museen/223771

Little is known about the early history of the Schenck grand. As a  local instrument it might have been produced for a local buyer; local lore and the later placement at the Widdumspalais Weimar associated the instrument  with the piano culture at the time of Duchess  Anna Amalia of Sachsen-Weimar but no further evidence could be unearthed, but it was indeed located at the Weimar court, maybe temporarily used in the court theatre. Its construction reveals the spread of techniques and ideals linked with Johann Andreas Steins by his disciples.

The Boisselot grand was used by Franz Liszt during his last leg of his grand  tour 1846/47 and for composing during his Weimar years. The transport from Marseille to Istanbul, then north into modern Ukraine and further on to Weimar left its traces and made it unsuitable for public concerts, but it meant a lot for Liszt who met his beloved Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein at his concert in Kyiv 1847. Whether the famous visitors at Liszt's in the Altenburg like Berlioz and Wagner were permitted to see this instrument kept in private, is unknown. With the aid of this instrument the most eminent part of Liszt's compositions took shape and he declared in a lettter to Xavier Boisselot: „Obwohl die Tasten durch die Kämpfe der Musik in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft fast abgenutzt sind, werde ich dem Vorschlag, es auszutauschen, niemals zustimmen und habe mich dazu entschlossen, es als bevorzugten Arbeitskollegen bis zum Ende meiner Tage zu behalten.“ („Though the keys suffered and worn in the musical battles of past, present and future I won't agree to any proposition to change it  and have decided to keep it as a preferred companion at work to the end of my days“ letter dd. 3rd Jan 1862; in: Adrian Williams (ed.): Franz Liszt: Selected letters, Oxford, p.572.)

These grands are closely linked to cultural life of the Weimar classical era and its music, and not only via their users but also their listeners.   It may be assumed that the Érard grand as well as the  Streicher grand gave Goethe inspiring and emotional music experiences. Beethoven's music might have transmitted on the Streicher grand played by Hummel impressions that foundtheir reflections in Goethe's ideas on this music.  The Boisselot grand became Franz Liszt's valued musical tool for his eminent part in piano culture.  So the sound idea and playing structure is an important link to the perpetual changes of musical interpretation.

Since instruments are not a automaton but a framework for ideas, in the technical structure and designs of the action  poetical ideas take form. These instruments from 1798, 1812, 1825, and 1846 represent a paradigmatic change of sound ideas. Each has a different action: the Schenck grand a German action after Stein, the Érard grand a (later slightly modified)  pulling action after his own design of 1807, the Streicher grand a Viennese, the Boisselot grand an English action. This exemplifies the vivacious variety of musical  esthetics and interpretation in the first half of the 19th century, which could raise doubts about modern uniformity.

The  project  included documentation of the instruments and archive researches. 
The musicological research was done by Prof. Dr. Franz Körndle and PD Dr. Erich Tremmel,  photographic documentation by Helmut Balk.
(See : http://www.musik-heute.de/2947/liszts-geheimnis/).

The results of these researches,  concluded by the  Thüringer Landesausstellung 2011 "FRANZ LISZT - Ein Europäer in Weimar", were pulished in the following:

• Franz Körndle and Gert-Dieter Ulferts (ed.): 
  Konservierung und Restaurierung historischer Tasteninstrumente in den Sammlungen der Klassik Stiftung Weimar 
  (Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag, 2011)
  

• Erich Tremmel and Gert-Dieter Ulferts (ed.): 
  Kosmos Klavier. Historische Tasteninstrumente der Klassik Stiftung Weimar 
  (Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag, 2011)
  
  
• Detlef Altenburg (ed.): 
  FRANZ LISZT - Ein Europäer in Weimar; Katalog der gleichnamigen Thüringer Landesausstellung Weimar 24.6.-31.10.2011 (Köln: Verlag Walther König, 2011)