Pleyel et Cie

Pleyel was a French piano factory, which was founded in 1807 in Paris by the Austrian composer Ignaz Josef Pleyel. After his death in 1831 his son Camille took over the work and led the manufacturer to fame. The end of 2013 the production of pianos has been set.

History

At the height of the Romantic Marie and Camille Pleyel arranged famous " salons ". This " salons " were meeting the Paris musicians and music lovers, where composers performed their works and virtuoso showed their skills. One of them was Frédéric Chopin. Because Marie Moke Pleyel (1811-1875), a concert pianist and wife Camille to 1835, was Chopin's first hostess in Paris. So Chopin chose 1832 as the site of his first Paris appearance of the salon Camille Pleyel ( " Salle Pleyel ", which first the Salon, later various concert halls were meant ). From then on Chopin played exclusively on Pleyel pianos that were praised for their easy action and for their warm, sweet and velvety, sonorous tone.

The company Pleyel was continued by the son of Camille from 1855: Auguste Wolff took over the management of the company. From about 1875, turned the firm of Pleyel, in contrast to larger competitors Érard, grand pianos in the "American " system with bass crossover and one-piece cast iron plate to. 1885, a 55,000 -square-meter new factory was built in Saint- Denis in northern Paris. Gustave Lyon, husband of the granddaughter Camille Pleyel and Wolff's daughter, took over in 1887 the company's management. He was an engineer and a pioneer of acoustic architecture.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Pleyel was committed to the revival of the construction of historical keyboard instruments, particularly double-manual Konzertcembali. A built for the Paris Exhibition of 1889 model, which combined the harpsichord mechanics with the achievements of contemporary piano-making, found recognition.

Worldwide distribution took this building type, as the Polish, acting from France, pianist and harpsichordist Wanda Landowska in 1912 developed his own harpsichord type along with Pleyel and this instrument was built in series from now on. The revival of harpsichord and construction in the 20th century is based on this cooperation between the piano maker and performer. In the Museum Haus Eller in Bergheim Ahe is a two-manual Pleyel harpsichord concert with 16 -foot registers, which was built for Wanda Landowska, 1927. This type harpsichord was built only a few copies and represents a late coronation of harpsichord construction Represents the instrument integrates findings from the grand pianos and has wings as well as a cast iron frame. It forms a design from the 17th century, has a complex arrangement of strings and webs in three levels and has control of the trains for the anzupfenden the strings Stecher by seven pedals.

In the same year 1927, the company created the new Salle Pleyel in the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, a concert hall to the highest standard.

Since 1972, the Pleyel pianos were manufactured in the Wilhelm Schimmel piano factory in Braunschweig. 1996, a new Pleyel factory in the southern French Ales was built in the beginning up to 1700 instruments produced annually, of which about 60 wings. But soon sank sales and production; already in 2007 the factory was closed.

Then the last 25 wings were manufactured in a factory in Saint- Denis. The Pleyel factory in Saint- Denis closed the year 2013.

Historical classification of the works of Pleyel

Pleyel was by the foundation date of 1807 ( after the end of production in Ibach ) is the oldest continuously producing piano construction companies in the world.

Fortepiano Pleyel included in their time around the middle of the 19th century along with the products of its competitors Sébastien Erard of the top products of keyboard instrument construction. Previously, this was true for harpsichord Ruckers of Antwerp, for pianos in the Augsburger family Johann Andreas Stein and the wing of John Broadwood & Sons, then for the manufacturer Pleyel and Erard, and since the late 19th century for Steinway & Sons. Therefore belong wing of Pleyel from the mid-19th century to the icons of the historical music performance practice and also the collector.

They were the instruments of choice by Frederic Chopin, which he compared to the instruments Erard and Broadwood often preferred. There are still two concert grand Pleyel, is guaranteed by those that they were the personal use of Chopin. One who Pleyel Konzerter at Hurstwood Farm in England, one of the nicest, most of timbres instruments in the world. From Chopin is a saying passed down through one of his students that he, if he felt comfortable, an instrument of Pleyel with its complex, finely nuancierbaren sound prefer to. If he was, however, not in a good mood, he 'd rather play on a Érard because of the wings in his sound design easier lead to a good result.