Conrad Graf
Encyclopedia
Conrad Graf was an Austrian-German piano
maker. His pianos were used by Beethoven
, Chopin
, and Clara Schumann
, among others.
, studying the craft in his native Riedlingen in south Germany. He reached the status of journeyman
in 1796 and migrated to Vienna in either 1798 or 1799. In 1800 he served briefly in an all-volunteer military unit, the Jäger Freikorps
, then became apprenticed to a piano maker named Jakob Schelkle, who worked in Währing
, then a suburb of Vienna
. When Schelkle died in 1804, Graf married his widow Katharina and took over the shop.
The Graf family had two children listed in census records: Karalina Schelklin (born 1802), from Katherina's previous marriage, and Juliana Graf (born 1806). Katherina died in 1814, and Graf did not remarry.
It is not known how Graf developed his style or methods for building pianos. None of the pianos of his teacher Schelkle survive, and the surviving early Graf instruments are not much different from his fully mature ones. As Wythe says, "Graf's style appears to have emerged fully developed out of an apprenticeship with an obscure provincial maker."
The early 19th century was a period of ferment in piano building; Wythe describes the work of contemporary builders as "a volatile blend of traditional craftsmanship and new technology, carried out in an atmosphere
of intense competition." Graf was successful in this milieu. By 1809, he was employing ten workers. In 1811, he relocated from the original suburban location to new quarters in the (more expensive) central city. In 1824 he was appointed as Royal Piano and Keyboard Maker to the Imperial court in Vienna.
By 1826, the increasing demand for his pianos had led Graf to adopt methods of mass production
, an area in which he was a pioneer. (Earlier, the building of pianos took place in small workshops.) He purchased the "Mondscheinhaus," a formerly fashionable dance hall at 102 auf der Wieden, and converted it into a piano factory, removing the chandeliers and other accoutrements. A report from 1835 indicates that the factory had 40 employees, who were "organized in eight divisions, each specializing in a particular job" (Wythe). Many of the workers lived in the same building, which included ten apartments. Between 1827 and 1831 Graf built two additions to his factory, adding a total of over 1000 square meters.
Graf's firm eventually produced over 3000 instruments during his lifetime. As the Grove Dictionary
notes, the instruments "show a remarkable degree of consistency and may be categorized as a series of models," presumably as a consequence of Graf's mass production methods. The lower cost of factory-produced instruments led in the 19th century to widespread ownership of pianos by the middle class; see Social history of the piano
.
In 1835, Graf won a gold medal for his pianos in 1835 at the first Viennese industrial products exhibition. His pianos were often owned and played by celebrated musicians (see below).
In 1840 Graf retired and sold the firm to Carl Stein, who was the grandson of the famous piano builder Johann Andreas Stein
.
Graf's business was successful enough for him to become an art collector, and he amassed an extensive collection. From Josef Danhauser
he commissioned in 1840 the famous painting Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano (shown below), which shows Franz Liszt
playing to an imagined gathering of his friends. The instrument portrayed is a Graf.
During his retirement Graf served as a volunteer for a businessman's association, the Niederosterreichische Gewerb-Verein ("Lower Austria
n Industrial Association"), which he had helped to found in 1839. He died 18 March 1851 at the age of 69. His will left sizable bequests to charitable causes.
As was typical with the pianos of his day, Graf's instruments use rather little metal reinforcement. The only metal structural part was the gap spacer, which reinforced the structure at the gap where the strings cross over the action
; otherwise, their construction was entirely of wood. The stringing was straight (that is, all strings parallel, instead of the bass strings crossing over the treble as in modern pianos). The range as C′–f′′′′ or g′′′′. There were from three to five pedals, which other than the standard damper pedal could also include the soft pedal
, bassoon stop, piano and pianissimo moderators, and janissary stop
).
Although Graf pianos had no metal frame, they were very strong. According to Wythe, "The frame members, constructed of five-ply laminated oak and spruce, interlock like bricks at each joint and at the belly rail, creating an exceptionally stable frame." The case was laminated (i.e., built in layers, as it usually is in modern grands). The sturdy construction prevented warping, which was a common problem of pianos in Graf's day, when both number and tension of strings was increasing.
Viennese pianos, including Graf's, are known for effective damping of sound after the key is released. Graf achieved this result by a variety of means. The dampers were graded in size (larger in the bass), and used different materials for different ranges (wool in the treble, leather in the bass). The weight of the dampers was also controlled: dampers for lower notes were made of a heavier wood (beech
), vs. lime in the treble. The lowest 13–17 dampers were weighted with lead.
A curious aspect of some of Graf's pianos was a second soundboard. This had no bridges, but simply floated above the strings (not attached to them). According to Wythe its purpose was to make the sound "mellower and more blended." The instrument shown in this article has such a soundboard.
The exterior of Graf's pianos was largely undecorated, emphasizing instead the beauty of bookmatched veneer
s in walnut
and mahogany
. (The mirror-image motif created by bookmatching is visible in the illustration at right.) The natural keys were normally of ivory
and the sharps of ebony
.
Thanks to their study construction, Graf pianos have lasted for a long time. Over 60 of them have survived to the present day and can be found in many of the musical instrument museums of Europe and the United States.
With a single exception, the surviving Graf pianos are grands. The exception is a notable one, a 1829 pyramid piano (a kind of upright) built on commission and extravagantly decorated with caryatid
s, an ornamental urn, and other sculptures. It is kept in the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague
.
or Anton Walter
. Intuitively, the sound is "heavier," less tinkling, and shifted in the direction of the modern piano. Builder/scholar Paul Poletti, who is experienced in restoring and copying Grafs, offers these comments on the Graf sound:
For downloadable sound files illustrating the tone of a Graf, see External Links below.
. At various stages (about 1810–1820, and also 1826; see below) he explored the possibility of adding a fourth string per note. Graf also built a mechanical saw for cutting veneer, capable of cutting strips up to 57 cm. wide, and created a device intended to help deaf persons (one in particular; see below) hear the sound of the piano.
a 6½-octave piano triple-strung to C, and quadruple-strung from D to the top (F4) – probably on the assumption that this stringing would make the piano more audible for the composer, who was quite deaf by this time. Graf's sound-channeling device, mentioned above, was also part of this effort.
Following Beethoven's death in 1827, Graf took the piano back and sold it to the Wimer family of Vienna. The instrument survives today and is on display at the Beethoven-Haus
in Bonn
. The importance of the Graf to Beethoven's career is probably minor. According to Good, "the only work he wrote for piano after getting it was the four-hand transcription of the Grosse Fugue
... and the indications are that he was playing very little even for himself in the last three years of his life."
In 1829, the 19-year-old Frédéric Chopin
came to Vienna from Poland to give concert performances on the piano. Both Graf and his rival Matthäus Andreas Stein offered Chopin an instrument to use. Chopin, who was familiar with foreign pianos, unhesitatingly selected the Graf, and his Vienna concerts were a success. According to Goldberg, Chopin continued to "cherish" Graf instruments during his subsequent career in Paris.
The famous virtuoso Franz Liszt
, who played Graf pianos, must have been something of a thorn in Herr Graf's side, as the Graf piano was not always capable of standing up to the violence that Liszt inflicted on it during his more impassioned moments of playing. Friedrich Wieck
wrote in his diary in during Liszt's 1838 visit to Vienna, "We heard Liszt today at Conrad Graf's who was sweating as his piano did not survive the great duel—Liszt remained the victor." Wieck described another concert on the same visit in which Liszt "destroyed" two Grafs, as well as an Erard
piano lent to him by Sigismond Thalberg
.
In 1840, Graf gave one of his firm's grand pianos as a gift to the young piano virtuoso Clara Wieck
(Friedrich's daughter), on the occasion of her marriage to Robert Schumann
. When Schumann died in 1856, Clara gave the instrument to her friend Johannes Brahms
, who used it for his work until 1873. He then donated it to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
; today it is on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna.
During the 1880s, the young Gustav Mahler
owned and played a very old piano, a Graf from about 1836. The instrument is currently housed in the Cobbe Collection near Guildford
in England. The collection's web site suggests that Mahler simply could not afford a better piano at the time.
Other musicians who owned or played Graf pianos included Friedrich Kalkbrenner
and Camille Pleyel
.
and Anton Walter
: they are uncorrupted by modern 'advances' such as the steel frame and the repeat action, and show none of the unwieldiness that eventually led to the decline of the Viennese piano." Kottick and Lucktenberg describe Graf thus: "although a conservative builder, Graf was well thought of, and some of the best nineteenth-century German pianists preferred his instruments." The report of the exhibition where Graf's pianos won a gold medal said:
The surviving Graf instruments are about two centuries old; the musicologist Robert Winter
has voiced strong criticism of performers who choose to use historical instruments, including Graf pianos, that may sound very poorly such a great passage of time. However, a number of modern builders have created new copies of Graf pianos, and these non-dilapidated instruments have been adopted by a variety of modern performers for both concerts and recordings; see External links below.
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
maker. His pianos were used by Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, and Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
, among others.
Life and career
Graf began his career as a cabinet makerCabinet making
Cabinet making is the practice of using various woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture.Cabinet making involves techniques such as creating appropriate joints, dados, bevels, chamfers and shelving systems, the use of finishing tools such as routers to create decorative...
, studying the craft in his native Riedlingen in south Germany. He reached the status of journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
in 1796 and migrated to Vienna in either 1798 or 1799. In 1800 he served briefly in an all-volunteer military unit, the Jäger Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
, then became apprenticed to a piano maker named Jakob Schelkle, who worked in Währing
Währing
Währing is the 18th district of Vienna, Austria. It is in the northwest part of the city. In addition to currently hosting a number of Vienna's foreign embassies, Währing was the site of the original burial places of composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.-Location:Währing lies in the...
, then a suburb of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. When Schelkle died in 1804, Graf married his widow Katharina and took over the shop.
The Graf family had two children listed in census records: Karalina Schelklin (born 1802), from Katherina's previous marriage, and Juliana Graf (born 1806). Katherina died in 1814, and Graf did not remarry.
It is not known how Graf developed his style or methods for building pianos. None of the pianos of his teacher Schelkle survive, and the surviving early Graf instruments are not much different from his fully mature ones. As Wythe says, "Graf's style appears to have emerged fully developed out of an apprenticeship with an obscure provincial maker."
The early 19th century was a period of ferment in piano building; Wythe describes the work of contemporary builders as "a volatile blend of traditional craftsmanship and new technology, carried out in an atmosphere
of intense competition." Graf was successful in this milieu. By 1809, he was employing ten workers. In 1811, he relocated from the original suburban location to new quarters in the (more expensive) central city. In 1824 he was appointed as Royal Piano and Keyboard Maker to the Imperial court in Vienna.
By 1826, the increasing demand for his pianos had led Graf to adopt methods of mass production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
, an area in which he was a pioneer. (Earlier, the building of pianos took place in small workshops.) He purchased the "Mondscheinhaus," a formerly fashionable dance hall at 102 auf der Wieden, and converted it into a piano factory, removing the chandeliers and other accoutrements. A report from 1835 indicates that the factory had 40 employees, who were "organized in eight divisions, each specializing in a particular job" (Wythe). Many of the workers lived in the same building, which included ten apartments. Between 1827 and 1831 Graf built two additions to his factory, adding a total of over 1000 square meters.
Graf's firm eventually produced over 3000 instruments during his lifetime. As the Grove Dictionary
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
notes, the instruments "show a remarkable degree of consistency and may be categorized as a series of models," presumably as a consequence of Graf's mass production methods. The lower cost of factory-produced instruments led in the 19th century to widespread ownership of pianos by the middle class; see Social history of the piano
Social history of the piano
The social history of the piano is the history of the instrument’s role in society. The piano was invented at the end of the 17th century, had become widespread in Western society by the end of the 18th, and is still widely played today.-Early years:...
.
In 1835, Graf won a gold medal for his pianos in 1835 at the first Viennese industrial products exhibition. His pianos were often owned and played by celebrated musicians (see below).
In 1840 Graf retired and sold the firm to Carl Stein, who was the grandson of the famous piano builder Johann Andreas Stein
Johann Andreas Stein
Johann Andreas Stein, was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano...
.
Graf's business was successful enough for him to become an art collector, and he amassed an extensive collection. From Josef Danhauser
Josef Danhauser
Josef Danhauser was an Austrian painter, one of the main artists of Biedermeier period, together with Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Peter Fendi, among others...
he commissioned in 1840 the famous painting Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano (shown below), which shows Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
playing to an imagined gathering of his friends. The instrument portrayed is a Graf.
During his retirement Graf served as a volunteer for a businessman's association, the Niederosterreichische Gewerb-Verein ("Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
n Industrial Association"), which he had helped to found in 1839. He died 18 March 1851 at the age of 69. His will left sizable bequests to charitable causes.
Graf's pianos
Action (music)
The term action, used in connection with stringed instruments, has two meanings, depending on whether the instrument is played with a keyboard or plucked by hand.-In keyboard instruments:...
; otherwise, their construction was entirely of wood. The stringing was straight (that is, all strings parallel, instead of the bass strings crossing over the treble as in modern pianos). The range as C′–f′′′′ or g′′′′. There were from three to five pedals, which other than the standard damper pedal could also include the soft pedal
Soft pedal
The soft pedal is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action including the keyboard slightly to the right, so that hammers which normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them....
, bassoon stop, piano and pianissimo moderators, and janissary stop
Turkish music (style)
"Turkish music", in the sense described here, is not music of Turkey, but rather a musical style called Alla turca that was occasionally used by European composers of the 17th and 18th centuries...
).
Although Graf pianos had no metal frame, they were very strong. According to Wythe, "The frame members, constructed of five-ply laminated oak and spruce, interlock like bricks at each joint and at the belly rail, creating an exceptionally stable frame." The case was laminated (i.e., built in layers, as it usually is in modern grands). The sturdy construction prevented warping, which was a common problem of pianos in Graf's day, when both number and tension of strings was increasing.
Viennese pianos, including Graf's, are known for effective damping of sound after the key is released. Graf achieved this result by a variety of means. The dampers were graded in size (larger in the bass), and used different materials for different ranges (wool in the treble, leather in the bass). The weight of the dampers was also controlled: dampers for lower notes were made of a heavier wood (beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
), vs. lime in the treble. The lowest 13–17 dampers were weighted with lead.
A curious aspect of some of Graf's pianos was a second soundboard. This had no bridges, but simply floated above the strings (not attached to them). According to Wythe its purpose was to make the sound "mellower and more blended." The instrument shown in this article has such a soundboard.
The exterior of Graf's pianos was largely undecorated, emphasizing instead the beauty of bookmatched veneer
Wood veneer
In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 mm , that are typically glued onto core panels to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry...
s in walnut
Walnut
Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
and mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
. (The mirror-image motif created by bookmatching is visible in the illustration at right.) The natural keys were normally of ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
and the sharps of ebony
Ebony
Ebony is a dense black wood, most commonly yielded by several species in the genus Diospyros, but ebony may also refer to other heavy, black woods from unrelated species. Ebony is dense enough to sink in water. Its fine texture, and very smooth finish when polished, make it valuable as an...
.
Thanks to their study construction, Graf pianos have lasted for a long time. Over 60 of them have survived to the present day and can be found in many of the musical instrument museums of Europe and the United States.
With a single exception, the surviving Graf pianos are grands. The exception is a notable one, a 1829 pyramid piano (a kind of upright) built on commission and extravagantly decorated with caryatid
Caryatid
A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese...
s, an ornamental urn, and other sculptures. It is kept in the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
Sound
Owing to their heavier construction, Graf's pianos have a rather different sound from the pianos that prevailed through Mozart's, Haydn's, and much of Beethoven's musical careers; for example those built by Johann Andreas SteinJohann Andreas Stein
Johann Andreas Stein, was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano...
or Anton Walter
Anton Walter
Anton Walter was a builder of pianos. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time".-Life:...
. Intuitively, the sound is "heavier," less tinkling, and shifted in the direction of the modern piano. Builder/scholar Paul Poletti, who is experienced in restoring and copying Grafs, offers these comments on the Graf sound:
- "Graf's instruments represent an aesthetic which is more proto-RomanticRomantic musicRomantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
than late-classicalClassical period (music)The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
Viennese. Everything about their design is tailored to provide a long singing tone, which unfortunately can only be had at the expense of clarity and transparency. If you really love the music of Schumann and early Brahms, a Graf is just the thing for you, but if you are more interested in Beethoven and Schubert, I'd recommend a late Classical instrument ... Graf's instruments are significantly heavier than their contemporaries because of the solid oak framework. Despite their reputation, they are actually not any louder than instruments by other makers – perhaps even less so."
For downloadable sound files illustrating the tone of a Graf, see External Links below.
Graf as inventor
Although Graf's pianos are generally considered conservative in their design, there is evidence that Graf explored various ways to improve them. His technical innovations included the strengthened interior bracing mentioned above, a new method of leathering hammers, and quadruple stringingPiano wire
Piano wire, or "music wire", is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano strings, as well as many other purposes. It is made from tempered high-carbon steel, also known as spring steel.-Manufacture and use:...
. At various stages (about 1810–1820, and also 1826; see below) he explored the possibility of adding a fourth string per note. Graf also built a mechanical saw for cutting veneer, capable of cutting strips up to 57 cm. wide, and created a device intended to help deaf persons (one in particular; see below) hear the sound of the piano.
Graf pianos played by celebrated musicians
Probably in 1826 Graf lent to Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
a 6½-octave piano triple-strung to C, and quadruple-strung from D to the top (F4) – probably on the assumption that this stringing would make the piano more audible for the composer, who was quite deaf by this time. Graf's sound-channeling device, mentioned above, was also part of this effort.
Following Beethoven's death in 1827, Graf took the piano back and sold it to the Wimer family of Vienna. The instrument survives today and is on display at the Beethoven-Haus
Beethoven House
DetailsThe Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany, is a memorial site, museum and cultural institution serving various purposes. Founded in 1889 by the Beethoven-Haus association it studies the life and work of composer Ludwig van Beethoven.The centrepiece of the Beethoven-Haus is Beethoven's birthplace...
in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. The importance of the Graf to Beethoven's career is probably minor. According to Good, "the only work he wrote for piano after getting it was the four-hand transcription of the Grosse Fugue
Große Fuge
The Große Fuge , Op. 133, is a single-movement composition for string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven. A massive double fugue, it originally served as the final movement of his Quartet No. 13 in B major but he replaced it with a new finale and published it separately in 1827 as Op...
... and the indications are that he was playing very little even for himself in the last three years of his life."
In 1829, the 19-year-old Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
came to Vienna from Poland to give concert performances on the piano. Both Graf and his rival Matthäus Andreas Stein offered Chopin an instrument to use. Chopin, who was familiar with foreign pianos, unhesitatingly selected the Graf, and his Vienna concerts were a success. According to Goldberg, Chopin continued to "cherish" Graf instruments during his subsequent career in Paris.
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, who played Graf pianos, must have been something of a thorn in Herr Graf's side, as the Graf piano was not always capable of standing up to the violence that Liszt inflicted on it during his more impassioned moments of playing. Friedrich Wieck
Friedrich Wieck
Johann Gottlob Friedrich Wieck was a noted German piano teacher, voice teacher, owner of a piano store, and music reviewer. He is remembered as the teacher of his daughter, Clara, a child prodigy who was doing international concert tours by age eleven and who later married Robert Schumann...
wrote in his diary in during Liszt's 1838 visit to Vienna, "We heard Liszt today at Conrad Graf's who was sweating as his piano did not survive the great duel—Liszt remained the victor." Wieck described another concert on the same visit in which Liszt "destroyed" two Grafs, as well as an Erard
Sébastien Érard
Sébastien Érard , born Sébastien Erhard, was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano....
piano lent to him by Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.- Descent and family background :...
.
In 1840, Graf gave one of his firm's grand pianos as a gift to the young piano virtuoso Clara Wieck
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
(Friedrich's daughter), on the occasion of her marriage to Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. When Schumann died in 1856, Clara gave the instrument to her friend Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, who used it for his work until 1873. He then donated it to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien , was founded in 1812 by Joseph von Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Theatre, Vienna, Austria. Its official charter, drafted in 1814, states that the purpose of the Society was to promote music in all its facets...
; today it is on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
in Vienna.
During the 1880s, the young Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
owned and played a very old piano, a Graf from about 1836. The instrument is currently housed in the Cobbe Collection near Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
in England. The collection's web site suggests that Mahler simply could not afford a better piano at the time.
Other musicians who owned or played Graf pianos included Friedrich Kalkbrenner
Friedrich Kalkbrenner
Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner was a German pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer who spent most of his life in England and France. Before the advent of Frédéric Chopin, Sigismond Thalberg and Franz Liszt, Kalkbrenner was by many considered to be the foremost pianist in...
and Camille Pleyel
Ignaz Pleyel
Ignace Joseph Pleyel , ; was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.-Early years:...
.
Assessment
Of Graf's instruments, Wythe says they "represent the culmination of Viennese classical piano building in the style of J. A. SteinJohann Andreas Stein
Johann Andreas Stein, was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano...
and Anton Walter
Anton Walter
Anton Walter was a builder of pianos. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time".-Life:...
: they are uncorrupted by modern 'advances' such as the steel frame and the repeat action, and show none of the unwieldiness that eventually led to the decline of the Viennese piano." Kottick and Lucktenberg describe Graf thus: "although a conservative builder, Graf was well thought of, and some of the best nineteenth-century German pianists preferred his instruments." The report of the exhibition where Graf's pianos won a gold medal said:
- "The distinguished characteristics of his pianos have gained them the attention of the entire musical world; indeed, there is a strong market for his instruments not only domestically but in all parts of the civilized world ... [they] must be included among the most successful achievements in the art of piano building."
The surviving Graf instruments are about two centuries old; the musicologist Robert Winter
Robert Winter
Robert Winter is one of California's leading architectural historians. He is the Arthur G. Coons Professor of the History of Ideas, Emeritus, at Occidental College, Los Angeles. He is particularly known for his contributions to the history of the California branch of the Arts and Crafts...
has voiced strong criticism of performers who choose to use historical instruments, including Graf pianos, that may sound very poorly such a great passage of time. However, a number of modern builders have created new copies of Graf pianos, and these non-dilapidated instruments have been adopted by a variety of modern performers for both concerts and recordings; see External links below.
External links
- Sound files: from a modern Graf replica made by Paul Poletti http://www.polettipiano.com/Pages/instrsoundengpaul.html.
- Sound files: fortepianist V. Sofronitsky plays a variety of early 18th century music on a modern Graf replica made by Paul McNulty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFnBQu_rDM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dconrad%2Bgraf%26hl%3Den%26emb%3D0%26aq%3Df%26aq%3Df&feature=player_embedded