This is the Manor’s 19th-century grand piano finding its voice after nearly 70 years of silence in the brilliant hands of Sir Stephen Hough. It was ordered in 1881 for the Grey Drawing Room by Baron Ferdinand from Pleyel and Co, a leading piano manufacturer in Paris. Their archive traces its construction over several months, listing craftsmen and processes, including making the frame, stringing and pinning, regulation and tuning. The 503 franc order specified the use of gold-plated strings and artificially whitened keys. The state-of-the-art modern mechanism was housed in a decorative case, including reused historic furniture panels, to blend with the 18th-century contents of the room. After the Manor transferred to the National Trust in 1957, the piano was no longer played and gradually began to seize up as the strings and action corroded.
Recently, conservators were brought in to work on the case and the mechanism to bring it back to life. The strings were replaced, the hammers refaced and the instrument rebalanced. Then a specialist in historic piano tuning returned it to playing order. Finally the great moment arrived and Sir Stephen was invited to re-christen it. He chose Song Without Words (Venetian Gondola Song) by Felix Mendelssohn, op.30 no.6 and the Nocturne Op. 15 no. 2 in F-sharp major (extract), by Frederic Chopin. Both composers had connections to the Rothschild family and their music would have been played in the family’s houses in the 19th century. It was very moving to witness the piano awaken with works that would very possibly have been played on it then, and which Ferdinand and his sister Alice, a pianist herself, would have recognized.
The piano is located in the Grey Drawing Room.
