Baldwin pianos

Susan Goldenberg, Steinway from glory to controversy: the family, the business, the piano (1996), 147 claims that Jorge Bolet had been introduced to Baldwin pianos by Serge Koussevitzky [in the 1950s?].

'After Baldwin sold the Bechstein line, it air-freighted an SD-10 to Europe for a 26 city tour by the internationally, acclaimed, pianist, Jorge Bolet. Bolet and SD-10 drew rave reviews, enabling Baldwin to gain a foothold in Europe.'

This particular tour was in the mid-1980s.

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Prompted by the above, I've looked back over the pages of this website, gathering together the sum of my knowledge about Jorge and Baldwin pianos. Feel free to contact or (new feature) add a comment in the box at the bottom of this page.

In 1862, reed organ and violin teacher Dwight Hamilton Baldwin opened the doors to his music store in Cincinnati, Ohio. With an eye on increased growth opportunities, Baldwin decided to manufacture "the best piano that could be built" in 1890. The first Baldwin piano, an upright model, was available one year later. In 1895, the company introduced its first grand piano, a 5'4" model.

On August 23, 1899, D.H. Baldwin died. Fortunately, one of his strengths had been hiring young men with the potential to lead his company. Lucien Wulsin, who was raised in Alexandria, Kentucky, displayed such promise.

In 1961, Lucien Wulsin III became president. By 1963, the company had acquired German piano manufacturer C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik; it would retain ownership until 1986.

In 1965, a revolutionary new Baldwin was introduced. The SD10 Concert Grand was heralded as a major advancement in piano design. A music critic cited in a Time magazine article about the new piano exclaimed, "If Beethoven had had a piano like that, the course of music would have been radically altered."

C. [Carl] Bechstein had been struggling to rebuild after World War II and the rise of the Berlin Wall. In 1973–1974: Baldwin acquired the remaining shares to take complete ownership, running Bechstein as an independent European name while sharing corporate management. But in 1986, facing its own financial pressures, Baldwin sold Bechstein to master piano builder and technician Karl Schulze, returning the German brand to local ownership.

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1942

In the Auditorio, Havana, Bolet played Spanish music on 12 January 1942. This was with the Havana Philharmonic under Massimo Freccia, an Italo-American conductor who died at the grand old age of 98 in 2004.

Jorge played a Baldwin piano, courtesy of Excelsior Music Co.

[This is the earliest reference on this website to Baldwin + Jorge Bolet]

1952

15 January 1952

Carolina theater, Orangeburg, South Carolina

The review notes that Jorge arrived with his own caravan/Baldwin in tow

Bolet toured Canada ("with his 9 foot Baldwin") in the autumn of 1952. Monday 6 October 1952, Théâtre Cartier, Montréal: recital on his first tour of Canada as reported in La Voix de Shawinigan.

Musical America, 1 December 1954 has an interview with Jorge in his Washington Square residence. Conversation turned to companions and to the transport of his Baldwin piano.

'Nowadays the ever-busier Mr. Bolet spends most of his waking hours with two beloved traveling companions. One of them is “Tex” Compton, an old friend of his Washington days (as a military attaché in the Cuban embassy) who now serves him as personal representative and sometimes chauffeur. The other, almost equally beloved, is “Baldwin”, a tiny Chinese pug thoroughbred...

'There is cause to mention, also, the contribution that Mr. Bolet’s nominal sponsor, the house of Baldwin, has made to his signal success. More accurately, it was in the course of an informal evening at the Tenafly, N. J., home of John and Letitia Ortiz (he is the firm's New York manager) that the idea of the piano van first came into being. It was Mrs. Ortiz who made the suggestion, three seasons ago, in approximately these terms: 'If you are so dissatisfied with most of the pianos you have to play on the road, why not pick out one that you like very much and make arrangements to drag it right along with you?'

1953

In August 1953, a newspaper announced: JB has travelled 45,000 miles, giving 67 concerts in 38 states during the last 12 months. Tex Compton was the "bad-weather" driver. Going up a hill in Connecticut once, the wheels came off the wagon carrying the piano, but the instrument was undamaged. One review in the 1950s by Ronald C. Teare notes of the 9 foot Baldwin that "it is the only time in the memory of those to whom we spoke that an instrument of that size had ever been placed on the high school stage".

2 April 1953

Oceanside Carlsbad high school auditorium, North County San Diego, California

'Here one of the world's greatest artists interpreted some of the world's greatest piano literature with the aid of his own cherished ''friend and colleague,” a superbly toned Baldwin piano, which he said had traveled over a thousand miles with him already on his present tour.' Blade Tribune 

16 October 1953

Civic auditorium, Grand Rapids, MI

Before starting this tour, JB had stopped off in Cincinnati (where the factory was) to pick up his Baldwin. Lucien Wulsin (Jr., 1889-1964), company president, came down to watch it being loaded onto the wagon. For three years now, Mr Bolet has been accompanied by his piano on tour. But if it's a case of one hall being miffed and "What's wrong with our piano?", he'll use theirs. The Baldwin will be unloaded some 55 times on this tour. (Cincinnati Post 15.10.1953) Elsewhere, we are told its value is $7,000, approximately $84,344 in 2026.

1967

22 January 1967 (Sunday matinee)

Music Center Pavilion, Los Angeles

Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 in C Major

Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling; JB introduced the new Baldwin SD-10 to Los Angeles

1971

The Miami Herald 17 October 1971 records that Jorge (who will give a recital on Saturday evening) has been missing from the local scene for a decade; he was last heard here in the small Binder-Baldwin concert hall in 1963.

1977

He was a Baldwin artist who had 2 Baldwin grands installed in a studio (courtesy of Baldwin) in an all-Steinway school. Many feathers were ruffled. He played that last recital on a Baldwin concert grand which is very slightly larger than a Steinway model D and it did not fit on the stage elevator. He paid for the installation and tuning himself and we blocked the hall for 2 days (my memory is a bit hazy on that that), so that Jorge could practise and work with the Baldwin technician on tuning and voicing the instrument.

Robert Fitzpatrick, Dean, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia (1986 - 2009)

1978

The company Girimport was founded in 1977 to represent exclusively Baldwin pianos in Brazil. At that time the market for pianos was high in the country, but imports of any kind for Brazilian operations were complex. It began its activities by bringing to Brazil two Baldwin grand pianos, which were inaugurated by Jorge Bolet at Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro [July 1978], and which are now in the Maksoud Plaza Hotel in São Paulo.

November, Mexico City

Rachmaninoff 3 [+Lutoslawski, Shostakovich]

Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México and Polish conductor Andrzej Markowski (Jorge had performed with Markowski in Poland in 1961). But the Baldwin piano had not been secured and crashed off the stage.

The Cuban-American pianist should have been a soloist in Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with the Filarmónica and Polish conductor Andrzej Markowski. He insisted on playing the Conservatory's new Baldwin piano, so the great instrument was removed from the campus despite the Director Armando Montiel Olvera's reluctance. Well, when the new Baldwin was placed in the middle of the stage, because of a certain slope towards the musicians' pit, the piano began to slide and ended up in the said pit, in pieces. The audience abandoned the hall without hearing the final work (Shostakovich). No one could agree on who was responsible, but the INBA will be forced to replace an instrument that cost close to one million pesos.'

1980s

When Jorge had some concerts in Holland, he was so unhappy with the Bechstein provided by the Dutch dealer that I proposed he play the following concert (in Utrecht) on the restored Baldwin. This was arranged and became a big event. Baldwin had just opened their warehouse in Spijkenisse, close to Rotterdam, and Tony [Antonio] Caravia had become its director. Caravia and Bolet knew each other from Baldwin USA, and both shared a Cuban background. Caravia organised a big lunch in Keyzer restaurant in Amsterdam. After the concert, Jorge said that playing this instrument felt to him like driving a racing car. One critic - Hans Heg - was not so pleased. He wrote the instrument looked as if it had come from a brothel! He concluded that everything in the concert was more focussed on beauty than on substance.

Mattheus Smits

1980

Peter Wadland, JB's producer for DECCA,remembers Bolet in the studio:

'In the USA, he played a Baldwin while in Europe he played a Bechstein, right up until 1987, when he changed to a Baldwin also. Having watched him playing for hours, I understood why he did not like playing a Steinway. In his opinion the soft pedal changed the tone of the instrument too much.

'During his playing, he kept both feet on the pedals, using the 'soft' pedal as much as the sustaining pedal. This helped to produce his very individual sound for the instrument. I was always amazed at how the keyboard shifted from side to side constantly when performing.

'I have to say that we did tend to have problems with the Bechstein. There was only one instrument then in London, and every time it appeared for a recording, it had been reserviced in Germany and returned in a different state. It was very lucky that I had the good fortune of employing Michael Lewis (son of the late Richard) and Denijs de Winter, both of whom Jorge adored, to tune and maintain the piano during recording sessions.'

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During 1980-1981, Baldwin recorded LPs with six of their associated pianists (David Bar-Illan, Jorge Bolet, Gilbert Kalish, Ruth Laredo, Santiago Rodriguez & Earl Wild) intended to be given away by their dealers to buyers of Baldwin pianos. These recordings hence weren’t commercially available in the traditional sense, unless you didn’t mind getting a piano along with the discs (a box with all six LPs entitled “The Essential Piano Library” was given away to libraries, which also included a double disc called “The Student’s Essential Classics” which might also have drawn from these sessions). Earl Wild’s session was recorded in Miami – the hometown of the producer – so I’m guessing Bolet’s was as well.

Christian Johansson

During the era when Baldwin owned Bechstein, I recall seeing a televised master class given by George Bolet, which was excellent. Both the Baldwin and Bechstein were clearly visible. My recollection is that the students sat at the Bechstein, and Bolet used the Baldwin to demonstrate occasionally. [True?]

(Blogger)

1981

Franz Liszt, Jorge Bolet – Schubert Song Transcriptions - Piano Works Vol. 2

The piano was supplied by the Baldwin Piano Company for this recording. Mattheus Smits, who was present during the recording sessions, says Jorge actually played on a Bechstein.

1982

Jorge's only recital this year (June) in Lima, Peru, a recital arranged in association with Baldwin Pianos (Los Zorzalas 140, San Isidro, Lima)

A recital in the Angelico Auditorium of the Dominican College, San Rafael California. 31 October, 1982

The SD-10 piano supplied by Baldwin had loose tuning pins in the register above middle C. The Baldwin technician tried to address this in the interval but without success and the tuning slipped even more during the second half.

Ray Edwards recalls: 'It was an interesting program, although not for the repertoire, which I don't remember, but for the fact that the Baldwin piano he was supplied with had a loose pin in the wrest plank in the octave above middle C that gradually slipped quite noticeably out of tune. The technician at hand bought it back up at the intermission, but it slipped again even more.'

1986

27 February 1986

Orchestra Hall, Detroit

Liszt recital (Benediction, selections from Années de Pelerinage:Italie, Transcendental etudes)​

Jorge had to stop midway through his opening number because of a stuck pedal on his Baldwin. It was ably corrected in record time by piano technician extraordinaire Thomas Pettit, who had to perform his surgery in full view of the audience, which is something like walking through a Roman Catholic cathedral stark naked during midnight mass. (John Guinn)

1987

Schumann: Carnaval / Fantasie (1987) DECCA recording

Recorded in St Barnabas' Church, London, 6/1987; piano: Baldwin

Chopin, 24 Preludes Op. 28; Nocturnes Op. 27 Nos. 1&2, Op. 55 No. 1 and Op. 62 No. 2. London 421 363–2.

Recorded in St Barnabas' Church, London, 6/1987; piano: Baldwin

Abram Chasins (1903 – 1987) died on 21 June.

The Manhattan School of Music held a concert in his honour (date?) and JB took part. Baldwin had very thoughtfully flown Bolet's personal piano from the west coast for this event.

Robert M Taylor

September 1987

Liszt Totentanz, Hungarian Fantasy

Houston Symphony/Sergiu Comissiona

"The celebrated Chilean pianist", according to The Houston Post. 'The opening week had its backstage trauma. A brand-new Baldwin piano shipped direct from the factory for Bolet's use was ruined Thursday evening (10th) when its rear leg came off after hitting a crack in the floor while being moved below the stage for some technical adjustment. Douglas Whitaker said the piano's cast iron frame was cracked, rendering it worthless. Financial responsibility for the accident has not been assigned, but Bolet used the Symphony's Baldwin piano Saturday (12th).

1988

13 March 1988 (Sunday), Royal Festival Hall, London inc. Beethoven Sonata No.31 Op. 110 in A flat and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma. The programme says that Bolet plays a Baldwin piano supplied by Pianomobil Antwerp. (I attended this recital.)

As ever, I am grateful to Mattheus Smits for providing information to this website. He has alerted my attention to this tribute (edited) to Jorge Bolet's tuner in the USA.

The Journal de Genève (19 November 1988) reviewed a concert in Victoria Hall, Geneva (Switzerland), with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Erich Leinsdorf

'His leonine playing exhibits the highest qualities.' He played his own Baldwin piano and 'he indeed knows how to make his instrument vibrate in an unusual way, ample and intense. In the delicate melodic passages, he extends the sound as if in a long breath.'

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Jorge payed a lot of Godowsky for me when I was staying with him in Bloomington. We went to Butler University where he kept his scores and could use his Baldwin SD 10 (in his apartment he had a small grand which he never touched).

Mattheus Smits

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According to my good friend Leszek Blach-Siewierski, Jorge played both Liszt concertos in Warsaw, Poland [November 1984]. It was for this concert that he stayed in the American Embassy and insisted on leaving the country after the concert with the last flight.

Leszek is a first class piano-technician who worked for Jorge very often. He did the two recordings Jorge made with Chailly (Franck, Schumann, Grieg), and all Jorge's recitals in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam after 1976, fragments of which can be heard on Marston. Many of Jorge's performances in Paris, too.

All this came to an end when C. Bechstein, for financial reasons, informed Jorge they could no longer provide him with Bechsteins. So Jorge and Mac [Finley, Jorge's manager] decided to have a Baldwin available for Europe to be transported and serviced by our friend Denijs de Winter who was running PianoMobil. This was also convenient for Jorge who could travel by car together with the instrument. The traveling within Europe for distances of several hours became more and more complicated for Jorge's tide schedule. Cancelled flights, trains not on time, missed connections and all that. So Jorge and Denijs travelled a lot. Jorge was very fond of Denijs because Denijs was always quiet and never talked much. Above all they both enjoyed smoking. So during travelling from Paris to Munich by car Jorge could at least enjoy his cigarette!

Mattheus Smits

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Andrei Svetlichny died on 12 April 1998 [b. Leningrad, Soviet Union 1957] at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 41 and the chief concert technician and manager of technical services for the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company.

He was the personal tuner for Jorge Bolet in the 1980s after the pianist's previous tuner failed him grievously. The tuner had forgotten to anchor the piano legs to the stage prior to a concert and when Mr. Bolet sat down to play, the piano began to roll away from him. It rolled right off the stage and fell into the orchestra pit, breaking in half. [Does anyone know if this refers to the event in Mexico City, November 1978?]

Baldwin had recently [mid-1990s] asked Mr. Svetlichny to assist in the first significant redesign of its SD-10 concert grand since 1966, when it was produced under the guidance of Leonard Bernstein and Max Rudolf. After crawling in, around and under the nine-foot piano and making or proposing various adjustments, he persuaded the company to make some fine changes in its basic design.

''You could tell right off, here was a master,'' said Joe Vitti, one of his early tuning coaches. ''He knew he had to take the stage, to stride up to that huge instrument and take command. 'Remember,' he'd say, 'it's likely to kick back.' ''