An unsigned Wednesday (11/13) report by the Agence France-Presse news service reads, “Top-end French piano maker Pleyel, whose instruments were used by the likes of Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy and Franz Liszt, announced Wednesday it will end production by the end of the year. Founded in 1807 by Ignaz Pleyel, a composer who was a student of Joseph Haydn, the firm has fallen victim to cheaper options offered by Chinese, South Korean and other Asian manufacturers. The company said it was shutting its workshop in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis…. France’s Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg said the government would try to find a way of helping the company stay open…. Pleyel has manufactured nearly 250,000 pianos over two centuries.… But production has steadily dwindled from nearly 140 instruments a month in 2000 to about two at present…. Pleyel is often referred to as the ‘Ferrari of pianos’ in France…. ‘It’s unthinkable that we cannot save this very old company, which is a great French manufacturer and part of the history of the piano,’ said Francoise Levechin, the head of the Paris Conservatory…. The Pleyel moniker features on several Paris sites including a famed concert hall near the Champs-Elysees, a metro station and a skyscraper at Saint-Denis.”
Posted November 15, 2013
