disambiguation . julius bl thner pianofortefabrik gmbh type private industry musical instruments founded 1853 founder julius bl thner headquarters gro p sna near leipzig germany key people christian bl thner haessler ceo products grand pianos and upright pianos website bluethner.de julius bl thner pianofortefabrik gmbh is a piano manufacturing company in leipzig germany . 1 along with c. bechstein b sendorfer and steinway & sons bl thner is frequently referred to as one of the big four piano manufacturers . 2 3 4 contents 1 history 2 models 2.1 designer models 3 notable bl thner artists 4 references 5 external links history edit the founder julius bl thner julius bl thner established his workshop in leipzig saxony in 1853 . this accomplishment was only achieved after a long and difficult campaign to gain leipzig citizenship . julius started his endeavor with himself and three other craftsman . a deeply religious man julius spoke the defining words that would allow his company to survive and flourish for the next 162 years may god prevail . the age of any particular bl thner piano can be determined by matching its serial number to the age table freely available on the bl thner website . 5 by 1900 bl thner had become the largest piano maker in germany producing some 5 000 instruments annually . innovations such as the aliquot string a fourth string that vibrated sympathetically and that is tuned in unison as well as the cylindrical soundboard and angle cut hammers created a unique voice for the bl thner instrument . the owners adolf max bl thner dr. paul robert and willy bruno heinrich were awarded an imperial and royal warrant of appointment to the court of austria hungary . 6 models edit bl thner grand piano today bl thner pianos come in several sizes of grands from 5 ft to 9 ft in size . they also make several sizes of upright pianos . they make pianos with most any style of cabinets and veneers with custom orders . they also make several models of haessler pianos in their german factory and two lines of irmler pianos . designer models edit the one of a kind bl thner piano of particular interest was the special lightweight instrument made for use on the zeppelin lz 129 hindenburg . the piano had its harp plate made of aluminum that saved about 100 kg of weight versus a regular cast iron plate of the same size piano . this was the first piano used in flight and it was used in an air concert radio broadcast . 7 it was removed in 1937 to save weight so it survived the hindenburg s infamous crash only to be destroyed by bombing during wwii . 8 a replica of this piano was also featured in the 1975 film the hindenburg where reed channing peter donat sings . since the film is set during the airship s final flight the piano s presence is a historical error . 9 bl thner has made many special pianos . they have made a few pianos with the design reversed so that a left handed person can play the tenor with their left hand and the bass with their right hand . in 2008 they designed and built a special keyboard for a customer in spain which had the jank keyboard design . notable bl thner artists edit sergei rachmaninoff with a bl thner piano . 10 photo ca. 1905 numerous royals composers conductors artists authors and performers have owned bl thner pianos . they include willhelm ii emperor franz joseph i johannes brahms gustav mahler liberace b la bart k claude debussy dodie smith max reger richard wagner johann strauss pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky dmitri shostakovich . 11 sergei rachmaninoff commented that there are only two things which i took with me on my way to america ... my wife and my precious bl thner . 10 bl thners have been used in popular music as well . one bl thner piano owned by the abbey road studios in london was used on some tracks of the beatles let it be 1970 album most notably in the hits let it be and the long and winding road . bl thners were also used in the films gaslight 1944 and the sting 1973 and one was played by hannibal lecter in the movie hannibal . another a stunt piano was destroyed in iron man 2008 . references edit bl thner grove music online 2009 . accessed 14 april 2009 . 1 courtney pianos ltd accessed 30th december 2013 . 2 the piano shop bath accessed 30th december 2013 . 3 henderson pianos sydney australia accessed 30th december 2013 . 4 . accessed 20th august 2016 . handbuch des allerh chsten hofes und des hofstaates seiner k. und k. apostolischen majest t. vienna k.k. hof und staatsdruckerei 1917 p. 519 history bl thner uk website 2005 . accessed 14 april 2009 . http www.airships.net blog hindenburg piano http www.airships.net blog the hindenburg 1975 movie a b 5 personalities bl thner uk website 2005 . accessed 14 april 2009 . archived july 24 2008 at the wayback machine . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to julius bl thner pianofortefabrik . official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bl thner & oldid 735420521 categories companies based in leipzigpiano manufacturing companies of germanypurveyors to the imperial and royal courtsaxon royal warrant holders1853 establishments in saxonycompanies established in 1853hidden categories articles with wayback machine linkscommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschespa olesperantofran aisnederlands polski svenska edit links this page was last modified on 20 august 2016 at 16 12 . text 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