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Russia’s piano makers After the Russian royal family heard him ‘duel’ with Mozart in 1782, Clementi began exporting his English brand of pianos to Russia, advising his colleague John Field to ‘make hay while the sun shines’. By 1810, six Western entrepreneurs had set up piano workshops in Russia, including a St Petersburg factory founded by the Bavarianborn Jacob Becker. The ‘Steinway of Russia’ was so well regarded that Becker pianos travelled to the Paris World Fair of 1878.
As the century progressed, only a few foreign-made Broadwoods and Blüthners made it through Russia’s protective trade barriers. This helped the likes of Becker dominate the domestic market. The factory thrived until the 1917 Revolution when Becker’s factory became state property, and renamed as Red October with a shift towards inexpensive instruments made in their thousands.
After perestroika, the old art of piano-making fell away. By 2000, the industry had almost died completely. The Red October factory closed in 2004. In the same month I started work on my book, it was reported that the last of Russia’s piano factories had closed.