That couple was more understanding than me. They suggested that since a lot of music lovers visit Vienna and that Steinway is (in their words) the most prestigious brand, so many people would come to wait in line to try it out. So it makes sense that the store does not let people play the pianos.

After they left, we lingered around a little more in the store. I started a conversation with the manager, telling him about our New York Steinway. And I talked about our plan to visit the Bösendorfer gallery and factory later. Then he suddenly said, “OK, you can play the piano over there, but only two minutes. Two minutes!”

cheeeeee “No, the pianos will turn old.

I feel like the response here is something like "if your pianos can't take a little light playing, you may need to sell them at lower prices..." or something... 😅

      This is the piano that we were given the permission to play for two minutes.

      I let my son, a much better pianist than myself, have the two minutes precious playtime. He ended up playing over four minutes, playing the Rachmaninoff g-minor prelude. The manager was kind enough not to stop him in the middle 😄. So all in all, we had some fun at the Steinway house. We went back there the next evening to attend a concert which I will write about later.

        ShiroKuro feel like the response here is something like "if your pianos can't take a little light playing, you may need to sell them at lower prices..." or something... 😅

        Totally 🤣🤣

          That's a beautiful piano! How did it sound?

            cheeeeee oooooh the recital piano (so already "used and abused"). What did your son think?

                ShiroKuro That's a beautiful piano! How did it sound?

                twocats oooooh the recital piano (so already "used and abused"). What did your son think?

                My son said afterwards that the piano was good, but not necessarily better than other model Ds he had played 😄(He had just completed a summer piano program in an all-Steinway school.). I thought the piano sounded a bit too bright for my liking.

                      cheeeeee I've always preferred the sound of a New York Steinway 🙂

                        I live in Vienna, know the Steinway flagship store and its current manager as well the independent previous "Steinway Austria" label the store was run under. I also know that this store is a 50 meter walk from the opera in one of the most central and tourist overloaded parts of the inner city. Unless you put stringent access policies into effect, that store would be overrun by thousands of people every single day, none of whom have a true interest in buying any of the grands, let alone the Spirio D that clocks in at 296,000 EUR.

                        I run a boutique piano store in Vienna and my flagship is a pristine and unique Steinway D from 1887, the only one left in its original condition and carefully vetted by a superb technician. I don't do walk-ins and only let people play the piano when they can show a true interest and purpose for renting that piano (It's not for sale).

                        Vienna has a lot more interesting piano stores and semi-private collections than any other city that I know of, but they don't necessarily advertise to non-buying non-customers. Which leaves the flagship stores of the known brands - and each and every one of them is tired of dealing with tourists wanting to play their pianos without bringing in any revenue.

                        Edit: Two paragraphs removed by @Mods

                          I can see both sides of this.

                          For a dealer, and would-be buyer of that piano, it can feel like people "free loading" an experience to play a very high quality piano, and if that piano's mileage adds up, it definitely feels "pre-owned" at that point.

                          For an enthusiast however, it could be an opportunity of a lifetime. It's not everyday you get to play, for example, an Hamburg Model D, particularly if you're from a place like the US. So it could feel like someone- a Steinway sales person for example- blocking them from an amazing experience 🙂

                          cheeeeee I thought the piano sounded a bit too bright for my liking.

                          I'm going to assume it's because it's played all the time, as a recital piano. I've played recital pianos of numerous makes (Steinway Model D, Bluthner Model One, Bechstein D282, , Steingraeber E-272, Fazioli F308, Shigeru Kawai, Yamaha CFX), and they all sounded extremely bright.

                            What an interesting thread, it sounds like Vienna is to pianists what Graceland is to Elvis fans! 🙂
                            clavierhaus I can see things from that viewpoint - the store owners don't want hordes of tourists dropping by and trying out the pianos, like kids trying out slides in a local park. They are running commercial businesses, not providing a public amenity. No doubt there are ways of discerning potential buyers/renters, and these people would probably get the red carpet treatment and may be given appointments out of hours to try out pianos.

                            "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                              clavierhaus Edit: Two paragraphs removed by @Mods

                              Thanks. I won't bother you with any further contributions to this forum. It's worse than PW if that's the best you can do in terms of interacting with people, i.e. no interaction, no guidelines, no nothing.

                              Just hiding behind the wall of anonymous "moderators" whose agenda isn't known to anyone, but they run the show. Well, good for you. One more member that won't bother you in the future. Great way to build a community.

                              Bye.

                                  cheeeeee What an incredibly amazing experience! The pictures you shared make me feel like I'm almost right there.

                                  It's good to see a part of the world where there's a vibrant piano community, so much so they aren't wanting for customers. The Steinway store experience parallels a similar one that I've had locally. It didn't leave a good impression on me as a potential customer.

                                  I really really want to go check out Vienna now, but that's very unlikely to happen, so thanks so much for sharing this!

                                  --
                                  Beach L168, Wish, baCh, WOW Petrof, Fake Steinway, VS
                                  TIME

                                    Thank you all for reading this thread. We enjoyed every minute of our fun music experiences in Vienna, and we were grateful to all the people who we had the opportunity to meet during the process. I’m sharing the stories as how we experienced the events and people: It’s meant to be fun, not meaning to complain at all! 😊😊。More to come!

                                    Coming out of the Steinway house, we headed directly towards the Bösendorfer Salon which is less than 10 minutes walk away. Following the GPS, we arrived at the address. Looking up, we were utterly impressed. It’s right at the Musikverein building, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra! We heard later that Bösendorfer Salon has been in this building for over 100 years.

                                    We heard music playing before getting through the door. A guy was playing on one of the pianos, surrounded by a small crowd of people, all smiling and with great interest. It was an unfamiliar piece but catchy. We joined the crowd and listened to him play. When he was done, he moved to another piano to play a tune. The crowd followed him and chatted about what they liked about each piano. The music and the people created an interesting ambience that was very different from the Steinway house. If one compares the Steinway house to a Mercedes dealership, Bösendorfer Salon felt more like a Toyota (or maybe Lexus) shop. 😂

                                    I chatted with them afterwards. It turned out that one of the people in the crowd was the salon manager. The pianist and two others were professional musicians from Brazil. They met the salon manager at their concert the night before, who then invited them to visit the salon. After the piano testing, they hung out in the shop for a little while when the salon manager talked to them about the history of the salon and about Bösendorfer pianos. We eavesdropped and learned some fun facts. They then headed upstairs to see the concert hall. We were not able to follow them, unfortunately 🙂.