Pianos & Fortepianos

Swenson's Piano Shop offers a full range of services for modern and historic pianos, including tuning, refinishing, and high-quality restoration. Instruments restored in our workshop can be found in many museum, institutions and private homes worldwide including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (photo), the Nippon Cultural Center in Tokyo (photo 1, photo 2), and the Schubert Club museum in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Beethoven Center at San José State University houses a fortepiano by Mathias Jakesch (photo) rebuilt in our shop. In the summer of 2007, we completed an unusual grand piano (photo), with "harmonic swell" built in 1822 at the London factory of Muzio Clementi. The instrument is part of the collection of the Granger Homestead and Museum in Canandaigua, NY. We have just completed the restorations of a rare fortepiano by the Viennese builder Conrad Graf (photo 1) and the Neapolitan builder Giacomo Sievers (photo 1, photo 2).

We specialize in the restoration of grand pianos by Bösendorfer, Bechstein, Broadwood, Blüthner, Baldwin, Chickering, Conrad Graf, Ehrbar, Feurich, Ibach, Knabe, Pleyel, Steinway & Sons, Schweighofer, Mason & Hamlin, and Stein & Streicher. We restore, buy and sell modern and historical grand pianos, including 18th- and 19th-century Viennese fortepianos. We are happy to talk about pianos and we invite questions about sales, restoration, appraisals, conservation procedures, and long-distance moving. The prices for our work and our restored instruments are surprisingly low. Please don't hesitate to contact us if we may be of service in any way.

Featured For Sale

For the first time in more than thirty years we can offer a rare Mozart-period fortepiano. This instrument is characteristic of the instruments from the workshop of Jan Lodewijk Dulcken. Length 220 cm, width: 102 cm; corpus height: 30 cm, keyboard range: EE-g’’’; Case: cherry veneer, paneled lid, four square, tapered legs. The music desk extends across the entire width of the instrument, 2 knee levers lift the dampers, double-strung through eb’’, triple strung from e’’ to g’’’, one wooden gap spacer. Action: Viennese or South German Prellmechanik with wooden kapsels. Signatures: on the damper rack: “ No. 1870”; on the treble side of key # 1: “Rep.[aratur] 24.III.14 B.[?] Zöllner." Most of the original wire sizes are still marked on the pin block. A curious geometric design on the pinblock may be a reference to the builder's name, the string scaling or the tuning temperament. Fully restored in our workshop and concert ready. Offers welcome.

Please feel free to consult our bibliography

300 Years of Piano Building: A bibliography of sources including piano builders

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