“Pianomania,” and the Magical Art of Tuning

One of my favorite activities of late is watching documentaries with Sean. He loves ’em, I’ve always loved ’em, and it’s a genre of significant strength for Netflix Streaming. We don’t (usually) watch them in one sitting, because I need my beauty sleep. Or something. But documentaries often lend themselves to staged viewings, so it works out nicely.

A few days ago, we (and also Mark, actually) finished off Pianomania, from 2009. It’s a bit hard to describe. Its creators say that “Pianomania follows Stefan Knüpfer, a piano tuner from Steinway and his famous clients Lang Lang, Brendel, Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimard as they search for the perfect pitch.” And yeah, that doesn’t help much. Try this:

The first two thirds felt particularly wandery to me, and I could never quite figure out where it was going. Finally, it was more of a “Day in the Life” than a “Message” piece. From the opening frames, though, one thing is obvious: Stefan Knüpfer’s a genius. Sure, the pianists on display are the principal geniuses (especially Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who’s almost as much fun to watch as he is to hear). But what Knupfer’s able to do is mostly magic, as far as I’m concerned. The legendary pianists wave their arms about and use strange, abstract words to describe the sound they want. And then, Knüpfer takes his little wrench and makes that sound appear out of (or into) thin air. AND YOU CAN HEAR IT HAPPEN!

It’s crazy. Take a look.

My favorite moments were towards the end, when Aimard, Knüpfer, and a pair of recording specialists gathered to record Bach’s “The Art of Fugue.” They spend hours and hours — days, even — struggling to find (and retain) the exact sound P-LA  wants for each Contrapunctus, Canon, and Fugue. Trial and error aplenty, and many shots of Knüpfer running the stairs between the performance hall and the recording studio. Also, many (and mind-blowing) shots where he extracts the entire hammer assembly and makes incredibly minute changes, or where he adds felt between the strings in a seemingly-random-yet-pitch-perfect fashion. And the final moment, where Aimard is so thrilled with the sound Knüpfer has (magically?) coaxed out of his Steinway that he stops in the middle of a take and says “I’ve always dreamed of this sound!” Wonderful. (Apparently, that portion was not to everyone’s taste — “…the seemingly endless, overly detailed scenes of Aimard’s recording sessions,” says NPR. I am, I fear, a walking niche market. On the other hand, it was Mark’s favorite part, as well. So either NPR is wrong, or I am actively creating little walking niche markets here at home.)

Luckily, you can make up your own mind. Because Netflix Streaming, remember?