Audience Member
This is an Austrian documentary about a tuner and technician for Steinway pianos played at major classical music concerts and recording events. The box cover suggested that this person was actually more fussy about his pianos than his clients were, but in fact it is the other way around.
Most of the film centers on a French pianist and composer and how fussy he is about how his pianos sound and how he insists on other pianos because one doesn't sound right to him, and the technician has not only to tune the piano but find people the right stools, add crazy-looking devices to the pianos to change its sound, change components of the piano to satisfy the various players, and go through a lot of aggravation.
Problem is, that's the movie in a nutshell, and it gets repetitive and boring without telling much else. Also included is a scene of preparing a piano for a comedy act, which was amusing, but overall the movie takes too much time to say too little.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
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Audience Member
Interesting but not fascinating - there's hints of passion, but it's not often fully conveyed, likewise insights into both people and technical details. Nice, but could have been much more.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I guess if you have a special interest in pianos this movie might entertain you.The movie consists of lots of interviews with popular European pianists (Tills Fellner from Austria,etc) which I had not even heard of I saw this movie with my Dad and he was interested since he really likes pianos but I can't say it was very good. It was somewhat boring along with the unappealing scenes of carrying pianos in Hamburg and New York. The movie also consists of lots of German subtitles and my Dad knows German so he didn't really need them but I don't speak it at all or have any intention of learning it.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
Excellent portrayal of artist working to produce that perfect voice of the piano. A real lesson in listening.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
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Audience Member
"brief mild language" as the rating commission may say (a stupid misuse of the English language btw) - amazing music and above all a truly obsessed professional - great for young people to see how you can have a profession you love. No kissing, no guns, no warp engines - just grand pianos and amazing suspense.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The technician and pianists studied up close in Pianomania, a 2009 Austrian documentary, are searching for the perfect sound. They always get close, but I am not sure any of them well confess to ever actually hearing it. Stefan Knupfer is Steinway & Sons master technician based out of Vienna. He works at the Vienna concert house tuning, re-tuning, breaking apart and re-constructing grand pianos. Working closely with the most famous and skilled pianists in the world including Lang Lang and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, they have intense discussions concerning tone, flavor, color, air, etc...
It turns out that grand pianos each have their own respective flavor, shape, and feeling. Is the sound round or too round? Is it full, thick, thin, light, or heavy? In Pianomania, Stefan describes the piano as the perfect music machine. Its full volume can reach 4000 in a single hall. Conversely, another technician raises the question of just how much of a musical instrument it really is. It takes three people just to move it around and if you draw on a particular string you will slice your hand open.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard will record Bach concertos in one year at the concert hall. A full year before these recordings, Stefan is already hard at work on it. He travels to Hamburg to painstakingly select the back-up piano in case the first one is not to Pierre's liking. He goes over to the Hofburg to consult harpsichord and clavichord experts because he feels he must know their sounds better. He almost self destructs when new hammerheads arrive (the parts which hit the piano strings) and they are 0.7mm too skinny, a fact he can tell just by looking at them.
Throughout the year, Stefan works hand-in-hand with all of these accomplished solo pianists to find the sound they are so desperately trying to describe. Tension frequently arises when they either cannot understand one another or when a piano sounds amazing to one person but like garbage to another. Well into the film, it is not odd to hear phrases such as "the tone is fine, it is what is in the tone which sounds off."
Listening to the musicians play after they have finally decided the piano is ready is a real pleasure. There are extended sequences devoted to them. The camera work veers off every now and then though to try and match the sounds such as filming clouds reflecting on water or blurry neon lights. Those shots do not work very well but they are few and far between. Also, once the Bach recordings begin a year later, they can become quite tedious as you will see microphones adjusted and re-adjusted and Stefan running up and down the stairs repeatedly between the stage and the recording booth. This conveys exactly what it is supposed to, that recording major works of classical music is extremely challenging, but it also not very amusing for the audience either.
I recommend Pianomania to those who appreciate classical music and would like to peek behind the curtain a bit. Beware to those of you who do not seem interested by these descriptions, you will probably be bored.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
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