A Petrof II
Inside of a Petrof II
A Petrof V
PETROF - A GREAT VALUE, A GREAT TIME TO BUY!
I really enjoyed playing these Petrof pianos. They were among the best pianos I had the pleasure of seeing on the tour. I may have seen other pianos but the Petrofs, especially the Petrof II are very memorable. These are in every way serious pianos. I regard them as a best buy at the moment. I don't expect their prices to stay this low forever.
Petrof Pianos
These are justifiably praised as some of the finest new pianos on the market today. They are very well made, they play and sound outstandingly well. The models we saw and played included the massive 7'9" II, the 5'8" IV and the 5'3" V. We were fortunate to get some shots of the distinctive plate or "harp" of a II. See below.
Some background. Petrof has been in existence a respectably long time. They were established in 1864 by Antonin Petrof in Czechislovak Austria. They made uprights, grands and harmoniums. Over the years they became the premiere piano maker in Czechoslovakia and now are the largest piano maker in Europe, so large in fact that they make half a dozen brands for others and are involved in half a dozen or more combinations with other piano designers. Although they had a shaky reputation at one time, this has largely been erased by aggressive quality improvement. Piano Piano works closely with Petrof and has the staff to bring these wonderful pianos into their peak performance characteristics, which Larry Fine, somewhat cheekily described as recommended for people "with an upper class musical ear but a middle class budget."
Of the many pianos Petrof makes, the models bearing their name are their top of the line. Take a look at the inside of this Petrof II. If you're familiar with the Bosendorfer plate, you'll notice the same diagonal bar across the bass strings, pictured to the right. This piano also comes with a lid lock, the knob along the curved side to the left, a feature usually found on the very best pianos.
Here are a few more features. They have a Duplex Scale, that is the ends of the strings that are not part of the sounding length are allowed to vibrate sympathetically rather than being damped off with felt. The other feature is the bar that crosses above the treble strings, which I think is called a Cappa d'Astra. It is a means to dampen the treble strings that helps to eliminate excessive inharmonicities since the treble strings lack dampers. If anyone has any further information on this feature, please e-mail me and I'll make the correction/addition here. Again the only other piano that I know of that has it is the Bosendorfer.
The Petrof II sounds a lot like a Bosendorfer but is perhaps a bit warmer and sweeter, with more sustain. It's a pleasure to play, has a full Renner action with Renner hammers.
Here's a Petrof V, another piano that changed my mind about "baby grands". This one had come back from someone on a trade up for a larger grand (also a Petrof) and it sounded and played better than another brand new one they had. These pianos will get better overtime as they are played and developed by competent piano technicians.
