Competition of piano producers

W Not only pianists compete in Warsaw – pedagogues and piano producers compete. The marketplace of producers of performance pianos from the "highest shelf" becomes very tight. In this year's edition of the competition, young pianists could choose excellent instruments as many as 5 different producers. They had 15 minutes to make decisions, which was carefully measured by a stopwatch. Under these conditions, the most tested brands were selected. Throughout the twentieth century, the undisputed leader in the production of luxury performance pianos was the American company Steinway, and its position as a close monopolist was established by Ignacy Padarewski, who conducted long touring tours by private train and carrying 4 pianos of this brand with him.
In postwar competitions, participants could only choose from 2 Steinway instruments. Only in 1985 did the nipponese pianos Yamaha and Kawai appear. nipponese pianos were equally good and much cheaper and more user friendly for the pianist – it was just easier to play them.
In 2010, a large Italian Faziola joined the stake. At the current competition, Bechstein made his German debut, but it was not a successful debut – only 2 participants played on it, who dropped out after the first stage. Bechstein is simply a brand as old as Steinway - about the past dating back to the mid-19th century, and being a European tycoon in piano production. However, the company did not last the expansion of Yamaha into the European market. After respective years of non-existence and as a consequence of restructuring, it appeared again. Although no prize-winner will play on this instrument, the issue was rated very high.
There is no better advertising for the piano maker than the selection for his performance of the winner of the world's most crucial piano competition. erstwhile large money comes into play, corruption appears - in 2010 as a consequence of the scandal, 1 juror was removed, who clearly scored above candidates choosing Yamaha's piano.
This company, now the largest maker of instruments in the world, wants to consume the last section of the market, where it encounters competition, but Steinway holds tight. Although it is the hardest instrument for a performer, it besides offers the most opportunities.

In the late 1990s, erstwhile I was in Malaysia, I visited a large piano store in a city of exotic name Kota Kinabalu. There were instruments from all over the world, including the Czech Petrofs, East German Forsters, and even the Belarusian Lirika. There was only no instrument from the country of Chopin, and after all in the Polish People's Republic we had 2 intrusion factories, in Kalisz and Legnica. Our pianos were exported to 30 countries in the planet and 70 % of production was exported. Many Kalisz pianos were exported to Finland, and it was even essential to change the name of Calisia on this market, due to the fact that in Finnish they were "kalesony", and Finns refused to play underpants...
At the Kaliska mill there was and there is inactive a unique Piano Construction Technique, educating high-class craftsmen with secondary music education. We don't have a mill anymore, but we educate professionals... for German factories. This is the consequence of Balcerovich's plan and "system transformation". Why was this process more devastating in Poland than in another marketplace economy countries?
Perhaps the rumors are actual that the condition of the russian Union's approval to unify Germany and retreat troops from east Europe was the creation of a buffer region in Poland, without an army and industry, ruled by good and predictable administrators.