The Bösendorfer Difference

The Planet's Premier Piano since 1828

At the heart of Bösendorfer Piano Company lies the tonal philosophy of a fine musician, its founder Ignaz Bösendorfer (1796-1859): "A grand piano should have a tone that is more reminiscent of a stringed instrument rather than of a percussion instrument..."

Born of this vision, the world's oldest, continuous piano manufacturer has hand-created jewels of European craftsmanship that captivate musicians worldwide with their uniquely singing, resonant, and colorful sound. Since 1828, Bösendorfer pianos have become the gold-standard of grand pianos from the 5'8" baby grand to the thundering patriarch, the 97-key, nine-foot, six-inch "IMPERIAL" concert grand.

To see more striking Bosendorfer pianos, click here to download our current product catalog.

The Planet's Finest Klangholz

An area in the Dolomites of Northern Italy, called Val di Fiemme, provides much of the spruce Bösendorfer selects as raw material. Nearly three-hundred years ago, violin maker Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) chose this very mountain area to find the perfect supply of spruce for his legendary instruments.

Unique to Bösendorfer is the knowledge, care, and patience employed to season and prepare this most precious "Klangholz" (sound wood). An open-air seasoning process, lasting as long as seven years, carefully conditions the spruce that will eventually create the soundboard of a piano as well as parts of its resonant cabinet.

Golden Hall in Vienna

Like fine wine making, it is century-old tradition, knowledge, science and the influence of the elements that determine the difference between an acceptable end product and an exceptional one.

Selecting, seasoning, and eventually kiln-drying wood to perfection have become the "secret ingredient" of Bösendorfer fame.

The Planet's Finest Key Action

Bösendorfer's goal always has been to offer instruments that combine captivating tone with perfectly balanced and highly sensitive keyboard response. Renner action components, built to Bösendorfer specifications, are meticulously balanced and regulated to allow the 5,000 individual parts of a Bösendorfer piano action to function like a finely tuned machine. In turn, this mechanical miracle needs to vanish and transcend its wooden existence to become the perfect extension of a pianist's musical thought and intention.

The Planet's Finest Piano Cabinets

Beyond the structural and musical substance of its fine instruments, Bösendorfer is offering piano cabinets that are unique and stunning. Rather than selecting an instrument from an inventory of current models, Bösendorfer encourages private customers, interior designers, and architects to custom-design the piano cabinet according to their taste and creativity and to match or integrate existing interior elements.

CEUS by Bösendorfer

CEUS by Bösendorfer

The Planet's Premier Player System since 1828

One of the cornerstones in the development of our new computer controlled grand piano CEUS was a scientific study conducted at the Vienna University of Technology. This study yielded a remarkable result: it analyzed the various ways in which we perceive a musical interpretation -either as mechanical or human -and was able to relate it to the degree of hammer velocity and strike precision. The prime objective of the Bösendorfer designers therefore became to design a computer-controlled grand piano with recording and playback capabilities so finely tuned that it was able to render an interpretation of a performance, reproducing it with its entire authentic depth of feeling.

The time has come. After years of research and development, in close co-operation with the company TVE Vienna, we present to you CEUS. The dynamic scales of the key movements are rendered absolutely authentically in all ranges from pianissimo to fortissimo. For the first time, the release of the key and consequently the setting of the damper has become perfectly recordable and reproducible; all pedal movements are now able to be seen as they were originally performed.

Comprehensive libraries: You might like having someone else play for you and conjure up the music of famous pianists in your own living room. Due to its unique preciseness, CEUS is able to reproduce any of the millions of available MIDI recordings in unsurpassed quality. At one touch CEUS will work magic. Invisible hands will bring your favorite music to life in the comfort of your home.