alternately over and through the bridge, ivory agrafes, experimental actions (mécanique à
grande puissance), and the different position and number of bars. By about 1842 the
models became more standardised and only really differed by the casework and length.
In 1834 the factory and salesroom were brought together in new premises that Camille
Pleyel and Kalkbrenner bought in the rue Rochechouart. In the same year Pleyel won
another gold medal at the Paris Exposition which was immediately mentioned on the
Pleyel nameplate. The successive medals of 1827, 1834, 1839 and 1844 give a quick
way of dating an early Pleyel piano, if the nameplate hasn’t been replaced.
Camille Pleyel was involved in piano construction at a much earlier age than his father
and had a closer involvement in their design. He wrote in 1841: ‘What need is there to
tell you of my febrile joy when the fourth C, for example, sounds 2 or 3 seconds longer
than another? You must forgive us these sorts of hallucinations that very occasionally
give us solace for our disillusions and disappointments. Why is it that if you take two
pianos from the same factory, made on the same model at the same time, and looking
absolutely identical, the vibrations of one of them are much longer than the other?’
Foreign workers played a major role in the development of Pleyel pianos. Prilipp and
Baumgarten worked for Pleyel from the early days, the English piano makers Bell and
Sohn took part in the development of the Pleyel grand, and the surviving pianos are
stamped with the names of the chief workers, such as Donoghoe, Pfister and Baert, which
don’t sound very French. In the golden age of the French piano industry (1830-1850) the
Hungarian Franz Liszt and the Polish Fryderyk Chopin played in Paris on the pianos of
the Austrian Pleyel and the Strasbourgeois Erard, whose major rival in Paris was the
German Johann Heinrich Papen (later Jean-Henri Pape).
Sebastian Erard and Ignace Pleyel both died in 1831. Pièrre Erard and Camille Pleyel
both died in 1855. Camille Pleyel’s firm was inherited by Louise Pleyel, Camille’s
daughter, in association with Auguste Wolff.
Chopin used an Erard piano during his first years in Paris but after his friend Camille
Pleyel gave him one of his instruments Chopin shifted to Pleyels. Chopin preferred the
light touch and silvery sound of Pleyel pianos and recommended them to his pupils.
Pleyel in turn made instruments that matched well with Chopin’s ideals. Chopin said:
‘When I feel out of sorts, I play on an Erard piano where I easily find a ready-made tone.
But when I feel in good form and strong enough to find my own individual sound, then I
need a Pleyel piano.’
The French pianos of the first half of the nineteenth century were evolving into the
modern form of the instrument. They had a light action and a delicate tone. When played
loudly they sounded harsh compared to the modern Steinway and Bösendorfer which
have a rounded and sonorous tone. The pedals on the Pleyel piano of Chopin’s time,
however, produced a good sonority and the dampers worked with a precision useful for
chromatic and modulating passages.