A grand piano is more than just an instrument or ornament, it's of a room and space all its own. And for that space on 57th Street near Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall and main showroom for Steinway & Sons pianos, will close its doors on the historic location and move elsewhere.
Steinway Hall was known as the flagship store for Steinway pianos in New York City. Quite literally, though, the store is the flagship as it was designed by architects who designed the Grand Central Terminal.
In a similar fashion, Steinway Hall was constructed with a large cruved window to allow pedestrians a breathtaking view of the pianos inside, according to NPR and Ron Losby, president of Steinway & Sons for the Americas.
The main entryway and main hall of the store greeted customers with a grand Beaux Arts rotunda with a crystal chandelier, frescoes and busts of Anton Rubinstein, Franz Liszt and Billy Joel (seriously).
And some of its most professional customers — including Hèléne Grimaud and Regina Spektor — are sad to the space close. As they note, while the upstairs is a fine showroom, all the "beef" is in The Basement, where all the concert grands reside.
"It was really, really hard," Spektor says about buying her first piano for her first recording session under Warner Brothers, "because each one was better than the other, and they were all giant."
She continued: "And actually the space that we had was small, so we ended up going with this little guy that, I think by the middle of the record, I was just, If I could go back in time, and I could've had more money, I would've bought that guy. It was such a great piano!"
While the space may be a historic landmark (the first floor will remain preserved and the rest turned into a high-rise of luxury condominiums) the new location, fortunately, will be a new state-of-the-art facility equipped in a similar fashion like the Gibson showroom.
For now, take a mini-tour with Losby below.
