GRAND PIANOS 2021 Collection

Depending on the piano manufacturer, the materials and degree of customization grand piano can cost anywhere from $10,000 to over $1 million. The first bracket on the lower end of the price range ($10,000-$40,000) is entry-level segment. Many of the second-tear piano manufacturers produce a perfectly nice grand pianos and are a very good choice particularly for those working with budget. The superior quality of the top German, Italian and American legacy brands such as Bluthner, Fazioli and Steinway command the top dollar for their instruments and while it is absolutely earned by their reputations spanning 180+ years and endorsed by the world’s leading musicians you are also paying for the prestige of the brand. Whereas brands that don’t have such prestigious names may be making a wonderful piano that will be of comparable playing experience and will cost you significantly less.

It is worth noting that grand pianos that cost beyond $250,000 are premium customized versions of the base grand piano models by respective manufacturers. Addition of exotic wood veneers, inlay intarsia, encrustations with crystals and semi-precious stones drive the price up exponentially depending on the amount of work, cost of materials and of course complications of design. You can also opt for a crystal piano – of which is absolute leader. The cast iron frame is then housed in a transparent body made of industrial strength lucite. Bluthner guarantees lucite for 30 years from yellowing or becoming opaque. Use of 3D printing and carbon fiber caps the price range at the top end. We should also bring to your attention that Yamaha and Kawai are among the world’s top piano manufacturers and their prices are just below their European and American counterparts which creates value without quality compromise. Many of the top prestige venues feather a Yamaha and Kawai concert grand.

The top quality pianos (which start at around $75,000 and up) are made by hand, use only the best materials, which frequently calls for a rare wood varieties such as highest quality solid spruce for soundboards, exotic wood veneers for the body and premium materials all across the piano. The felt for the hammers, the pin blocks and actions parts has to be superior, the string wire, chrome, brass or gold plated pedals and all the other hardware are too made of the superior quality materials. Bare in mind that with global ban on ivory today’s brands all have developed and patented their proprietary materials to cover the keys. These feature such high-tech attributes as sweat absorption, enhanced traction and specific feel – so that each brand produces piano with keys made of their own engineering. All this of course requires a magnificent craftsmanship and thousands of hours of labor to build a premium grand piano. Some instruments take as long as 16,000 hours to make! There are very few piano craftsmen in the world and many have worked for the same manufacturer for generations. This level of know-how goes far beyond the ‘job’ and into the realm of a calling. Like the finest of jewelers and watch makers piano craftsmen acquire their skills through apprenticeship from a young age and never stop researching, developing and inventing. Each legacy brand has dozens of patents on their proprietary architecture and engineering and all off the above is invented by their in-house craftsmen. One of the most frequent areas of proprietary invention has to do with action responsiveness and amelioration of the tone, which insures all notes across the keyboard sound uniform. Steinway, Fazioli, Bechstein, Bluthner and Bosendorfer all hold such patents and guard their secrets with utmost care. The other area of patent-held inventions has to do with stringing of the grand pianos and soundboard construction. Kawai for example refers to their craftsmen as ‘samurai’ and treats them as guardians of treasured secrets. While Yamaha dispatched many of their craftsmen to Europe throughout 20th century to learn from the established European piano craftsmen and then build their proprietary designs on that time-tested knowledge.

One obvious difference of course is the size – which is implied in the name. Baby grand is shorter lengthwise than a grand. Obviously, the width is pre-determined by 88-keys of the keyboard so for the most part the width of the grand or a baby grand piano remains to be 5 feet. The caveat is that the longer body of the grand allows for more vibration of the strings and the soundboard which results in a richer tone and more resonance. The length of the key shanks and hammers on a larger grand piano enables the action to be more nuanced and have better fast repetition as the micro-weighing of the key balance benefits from length. Of course your space’s parameters determine how large a piano you can fit into that space and therefore piano manufacturers go out of their way to deliver a great instrument in various sizes. If the space is absolutely limited the newest upright pianos developed by Bluthner and Sauter are excellent. The next best thing is your baby grand if your space can accommodate since the tone and sound quality of the grand piano is generally superior to uprights. But if the size of your space allows choosing a grand piano will always be an inherently better choice.

In order to be close to any objective estimation we would have to arrange the pianos in the categories: Premium Legacy Brands, Performance pianos, luxury pianos and value propositions from the fine non-premium brands.

Fazioli, Steinway, Bluthner, Bechstein and Bosendorfer all share the trophy for the best grand piano. The quality of those pianos is absolutely breathtaking and the ranking will be determined by personal preferences: sound color, action resistance and aesthetic of the piano’s body. The second category comprises of excellent instruments made by Yamaha, Kawai, Sauter, Grotrian and Steingreaber and Sohne. Again the winner is whichever you like best – lighter action and brighter sound on Yamaha, darker tone on Kawai, super-resonant Sauter and orchestral Grotrian – all super fine grand pianos offering the variety of brand-specific features that have their devoted customer base. Our recommendation is to determine your budget, space capacity and then try out different pianos to identify your favorite qualities.