Note by Note (The Making of Steinway L1037)

The main character in is a Steinway L1037 concert piano, and we see it in all its phases of development - from its humble beginnings as timber in Alaska all the way up to its arrival in a chic piano store in New York. Craftsmen speak lovingly about the time-consuming precision work that goes into the manufacturing of such an instrument. According to the various piano tuners, pianists and concertgoers who figure in the film, every single piano possesses a unique personality, one that is formed during the creation process. After all, it really is sensitive handiwork, and the details make the difference between this Steinway and the hundreds of thousands of others that have been built in the past 150 years. "Essentially, we build the piano exactly the way we did a century ago," Franz Mohr, former Chief Concert Technician at Steinway, explains in the film. "Of everything we produce in the world these days, I can think of nothing that has remained so conservative, so unchanged." is a very special music film, one that does not concentrate on the music or the musicians, but rather on the instrument and the people who build it. As the first cautious sounds are elicited from the new piano, it is as if a newborn baby is taking its first breath.