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Watch Stephen Hough’s performance
Aframe, a soundboard, some keys, hammers and strings and a lid. It doesn’t sound much but since 1720, when Cristofori invented the piano, these few items, the majority of them still made from natural materials, have been developed and refined to an extent that makes other outwardly more complex products seem as if they’ve been standing still. The latest stage in the piano’s extraordinary 300-year journey was reached this May with the launch of the Yamaha CFX concert grand piano. At this point, anyone familiar with Yamaha grands will no doubt be asking, isn’t there already a CFX? Yes, but that one was launched in 2010. I know, because I was there.
It was in Wiesbaden, in Germany, and Piotr Anderszewski was the pianist who introduced it. It was a glittering event but strip away the lights, the cameras and the canapes and what remained was a great pianist playing Chopin on a great new piano. A Yamaha piano.
I emphasise Yamaha because if we know anything about this company it is that what it makes, it seeks to make better. So if the 2010 CFX was good,
