Pianomania

“Surprisingly compelling! Too intriguing and entertaining to be left to the specialists… A captivating film not just for pianomaniacs.” - Time Out London “The film comes with a 5.1 Surround Sound audio track, which I’d say is the ideal way to listen to the film. This creates the optimal environment to hear the minute changes in timber, pitch, and resonance that Knupfer makes as he prepares each piano to the specific sonic requirements of each musician and venue.” – VeryAware.com

Pianomania is a film about love, perfection and a little bit of madness. back ▲ „The tone isn’t breathing. “ – complains pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, distraught. This is a typical sentence in Steinway & Sons’ chief technician and Master Tuner Stefan Knüpfer’s normal work day. Each piano has its own personality, each piece demands its own timbre, and every interpretation has a particular temperament. Pianomania takes the viewer along on a humorous journey into the secret world of sounds, and accompanies Stefan Knüpfer at his unusual job with world famous pianists like Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimand, among others. To find the right instrument with the necessary qualities, compatible with the vision of the virtuoso, to tune it to perfection and finally to get it on the stage, needs nerves of steel, boundless passion, and the extraordinary competence in translating words into sounds. This unusual film by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis tells – with love and humor – of moments of absolute love of attention to detail and perfection. Pianomania observes, from unique angles, the suspenseful search for the perfect tone.

Price: $32.98