Pianomania

There have been great documentaries about Steinway. And great concerto registrations of many a keyboard giants. And this should have been a documentary about a great piano tuner. Stefan Knüpfer is a great piano tuner. Steinway is the grandfather of grand pianos. Lang and Brendel and Aimard are great musicians.For any music lover this should have been a shoo-in, njet? Alas, no. Tuners, instruments and players move in the mysterious (concert) halls of sounds. If they're good you can hear it. But the addition of images (and edit the whole in a coherent manner) is entirely up to the documentary maker.

It says something when the most exciting parts of this documentary are the transport and setting up of those grand behemoths, and seeing Knüpfer at work. But the endless talks and takes about sound and its interpretation are only interesting for the first or second time. And as Knöpfer himself is a rather self-effacing guy, you're not drawn into his world as with people like Glen Gould or Leonard Bernstein (the "making" of the Goldberg Variations, or the "making of Westside Story).

A good documentary maker should have seen this coming, otherwise "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing."

I watched this documentary exactly one week ago at the NZ IFF in Auckland. It's been on my mind ever since! It's a slow paced documentary about a piano tuner working in Vienna with some (very famous?) pianists playing Bach, Mozard, Berlioz etc. One of them is a very perfectionist pianist, but funny at the same time.

As said it is slow paced, but has many funny moments. I never knew tuning a (grand) piano was so complicated, but after watching this docu I really admire his skill, not only technical but his people skill as well.

I recommend seeing this documentary, the theatre was almost sold out when I watched it and everyone there really seemed to enjoy it.

It is mostly in German, but is partly in English as well.

I've always enjoyed watching an artist at the top of the game, and while the musicians here, Lang Lang, Aimard et al are all at the top of their games for sure, it is Stephan Knüpfer who is the true artist here. Here is a man who knows his pianos at such an intimate level he is able to translate the musicians incredibly specific and intangible demands in to reality.

This film is just captivating from beginning to end, watching Stephan tweak, poke, dust, tune, twist and thump the pianos like only a true master of his craft can do.

Highly recommended.

Stefan Knüpfer is a piano tuner who works for Steinway (very popular manufacturer). He spends a great deal of time working with pianists making sure that the pianos they play on sound just right before performances. Pianomania masterfully shows us the tension between Stefan and Pierre- Laurent Aimard, a renown French pianist, who seemingly can never be satisfied. We are given a look into the complex requests Knüpfer must take on as he tries to understand the needs of performers and their instruments.

Piano tuners are a rare breed of person, of which Stefan is no exception. This fragile-looking man with rounded glasses who lives a stress-filled life of running from one performance hall to the next on a daily basis. He is the perfect example of someone who works behind the scenes, often going unnoticed, never recognized for the importance of his work to the performances viewed by many.

"...it (piano) has to be continuously remixed so that what is produced right there, the quality of the sound conforms with what the artist imagines. That is the difficulty that needs to be constantly addressed."

The film is much like an episode of "Worlds Toughest Jobs". As Stefan mentions, it is trying to create a sound from the piano that is exactly like the sound that these performers have in their minds. Taking something that is obscure or intangible and turning this into reality. I found the language barrier to be fascinating considering the performers he works with come from all walks of land. It is almost comic how this adds to the already daunting task of interpreting what is being asked of him.

Pianomania is a perfect example of why I continue to watch documentaries. They not only offer a voice to those who have none, but can also provide a view into the world of those who may not care for one. That Stefan finds beauty in everything about his job makes this all the more beautiful to watch.

This movie follows Steinway Piano Tuner Stefan Knüpfer around the various assignments of his work. The movie underlines the point that a piano is a complicated, tricky instrument with multiple facettes in the sound that only the skilled tuner can reveal. Mr. Knüpfer is the central funny point in this movie, him being a positive person delighted by his craft, and he is fully apt at conveying this love of his work on screen. My only grudge with this movie is that it focuses at length on the people that play the piano, where I would have expected to see him work, eg. tune the piano. The end credits of the film use many of those image sequences I would really love to see in the main movie.