🎹 Top 12 Most Expensive Pianos | World's Most Expensive Pianos 🎹

#MostExpensivePianos #WorldsMostExpensivePianos #ExpensivePianos

0:00 - Video Intro The World’s Most Expensive Pianos by Merriam Pianos
0:59 - Opening Playing Demonstration by Stu Harrison on the C. Bechstein 212
1:25 - Video Overview on the World’s Most Expensive Pianos
3:19 - Piano #1 “The Casablanca” Piano
4:46 - Piano #2 “The Heintzman Crystal” Piano
8:18 - Piano #3 “C. Bechstein’s Louis XV” Piano
13:36 - Piano #4 Steinway’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” Piano
15:14 - Steinway’s “Fibonacci” Piano
16:41 - Steinway Upright “The John Lennon” Piano
18:54 - Piano #7 “The Galaxy” Piano
20:29 - C. Bechstein’s “Sphinx” Piano
23:59 - Bösendorfer “Kuhn” Piano
24:22 - Bösendorfer “Opus 50” Piano
25:20 - The “Marilyn Monroe” Piano
27:08 - The “Fazioli - M. Liminal” Piano
28:47 - Video Outro

Hi everyone and welcome to the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. Today we’ve got a cool general interest video for you as we do an overview of the world’s most expensive pianos.

Here are the world’s 12 most expensive pianos, but note that while some of these pianos have been sold in auctions, others have never been sold and we’re instead going by the manufacturer list pricing.

#1. Casablanca Prop Piano, Sold Price: $3,400,000 USD
The single most expensive piano ever sold wasn’t even a fully functional piano, but rather a movie prop from this famous film. There you have it; the world’s most expensive piano isn’t even a real piano.

#2. Heintzman Crystal Concert Grand, Sold Price: $3,220,000 USD
This piano was constructed for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was performed on by Lang Lang. Details of the piano itself are actually quite scarce though we know this piano would have been manufactured in China.

It has never been confirmed whether the piano was actually made of real crystal. We suspect it was probably made of acrylic.

#3. C. Bechstein Louis XV, Sold Price: Approx $3,000,000 USD
The original Louis XV was a gift from C. Bechstein to Queen Victoria upon the opening of their new London showroom in the late 1800s.

#4. NY Steinway & Sons ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ Model D, Price: $2,500,000 USD
This piano is a standard Steinway Model D internally, however, it is intricately painted with stunning detail, depicting the story of Mussorgsky’s famous art exhibition. The detail of the painting has to be seen to be believed. The legs and bench are also intricately carved.

#5. NY Steinway & Sons ‘Fibonacci’ Model D: Price: $2,400,000 USD
The Fibonacci Model D was the 600,000th crafted Steinway piano, and as such, they pulled out all of the stops. It was designed by Master Artisan Frank Pollaro and is even more eye-catching than the previous Model D on our list.

Like the other Model D, one of these has never been sold, so we only have the list price to go by,

#6. John Lennon’s Steinway Model Z Upright; Price: $2,300,000 USD
This piano was used to write many famous songs, such as Imagine. This piano’s value entirely derives from who owned it.

#7. Gold Leafed Schimmel Pegasus Galaxy Grand, Price: $1,365,000 USD
The Schimmel K208 Pegasus is a German fibreglass piano with a very unique shape. The luxury company Galaxy has taken a Pegasus and simply added gold leaf to increase its value.

#8. C. Bechstein B212 Sphinx Grand, Price: $1,200,000 USD
This instrument is in semi-regular production and can be ordered from C. Bechstein. While not as intricate as the Louis XV, this is still a real work of art that takes over 1,800 man-hours to manufacture.

#9. Kuhn Bosendorfer 225 Grand, Price: $800,000 USD
The Kuhn Bosendorfer is a black polish 225 grand adorned with intricate glass crystal inlays.

#10. Bosendorfer Opus 50 Grand, Price: $750,000 USD
This was the 50,000th Bosendorfer ever made and as such, the case was built with stunning carpentry.

#11. Marilyn Monroe’s White Baby Grand, Price: $695,000
We have no idea who built this piano, but simply due to who owned it, it is one of the single most expensive pianos ever sold.

#12. Fazioli M. Liminal Grand, Price: $500,000 USD
One of the most unique-looking pianos ever built, the Fazioli M. Liminal features a fibreglass cabinet that almost looks like a spacecraft, but in the best way possible.

Connect with Merriam Music:

[anthonysilva]

I once visited a Toronto piano store and the gentleman I spoke to was super kind and accommodating .
Although I’m a piano hack, I am an experienced guitarist and engineer.
Not only did this salesperson answer ALL my questions, he also took me upstairs to where the pianos were $250 000+
and demonstrated each and allowed me to play too.
A lifetime memory moment.

[greatday]

I was not expecting this video to be as interesting as it was! I particularly appreciated that it wasn't just a list but that we were also able to get some of the associated history of these pianos.

[nowkentapplegate]

It would be nice to see the top 10 or 12 standard concert instruments by price.

[gauriblomeyer]

The value of a piano is related to its musical achievement and never to any other feature. For me the Bösendorfer piano of Sir Andras Schiff is by far the best piano today.

[amirprog]

Any chance you review numa x piano GT, soon? Enjoying your detailed video reviews and comparisons. Very nice channel.

[geraldparker]

My own grand piano, a baby-grand made in 1935 by the exceedingly prestigious Blüthner piano company in Leipzig, has some historical connexions to it. Before myself, the piano was owned by the chaplain of the Expos baseball team (when the team still was in Montréal). The Expos were all quite devout evangelical Protesant Christians. They used to give big gospel music concerts in Montréal and religion for them was something very important as a team. Their posters for the gospel music events that they gave are unusually attractive and should be worth much on the terms of that kind of printing. I have one of them.

[stephenraatz]

Excellent! Thank you so much. I was very fortunate to take master piano classes in Vienna at Bösendorfer. One class was in 2013 when the Opus 50 was on display in their Wiener Neustadt factory showroom. It commemorated their 50, 000th instrument produced. They have never produced more than 300 pianos a year. We were allowed to try any of the approximately 40 pianos in this show room. I got to play the opus 50! Thank you so much for including it inyour video. I’m surprised you didn’t include any of the Klimt Woman in Gold Bösendorfers. They have a beautiful inner hood replica of the famous painting. I bought my Bösendorfer 170 brand new in 1989 when I lived in Germany and it has been my pride and joy ever since. When I moved back to the USA Bösendorfer shipped a custom container from Vienna to Brussels where it was air freighted and only out of my sight for two days!

[ambiva]

Pegasus was designed by the legendary designer Luigi Colani, the father of organic design. He's also famous for a lot of other organic objects (in his motto non of the design should have any straight line). It is because I saw the Pegasus and Mr.Colani early in 2002, which inspired me to study design and end up in the Royal College of Art Industrial design, all thanks to him :)

[gabriel.M]

Hope you do a review on the family of Nord pianos soon !
I’ve been looking for that review on the channel

[ulixo]

The Fibonacci Steinway sure looks amazing

[ViraDrama]

Thanks, I can’t buy any piano on your list but I like to hear about them.🎼🎶😎

[davidmcnicol]

That was absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much. Also, that old attempt at a piano by Cristofori at the Met has got to be worth something!!!

[TheEllis]

I’m watching this as I look over at my scratch and dent Roland ds88. Side note, I went with the Roland after watching another of your videos.

[brmh]

Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing.

[jamesnewberry]

I am awarding you with a honorary doctorates degree from our community
Keep the the videos coming !

[MrGourd]

Interesting list with tons of variety. My favorite piano was the one with chuckoo clocks for legs!

[MERCEDES-BENZSGUARD_V]

This looks interesting. Will watch it later🎹🎶

[benjaminsagan]

I share your taste! The Fibonacci and the Opus 50 are also my favorites, and the Louis XV and Sphinx are striking.

[Instrumental-Covers]

What about a video of the most expensive digital pianos? These are some of them with Roland and Kawai tone generators and actions:

1) Whaletone: Royal Digital and Grand Hybrid. Price: at least $110, 000.

They use the SuperNATURAL tone generator. The Royal Digital uses a discontinued Roland action. The newest addition to the lineup (Grand Hybrid) is using an action that "is based upon the use of full mechanics of a classical hammer mechanism".

The amplifiers on the original one were rated at 350/1100 watts per channel. The power consumption was rated at 2, 000 watts.

2) EXXEO: luxury digital piano with Kawai tone generator and action

Not completely confirmed, but these are apparently the specs:

* Tone generator: SK-EX Rendering and Harmonic Imaging XL
* Action: Grand Feel III
* Speakers: 9 speakers and 200 watt amplifiers developed by Onkyo
* Built-in Lithium-Ion battery on the tail that lasts 20 hours

3) Roland GPX-F1 Facet Piano

* PureAcoustic Piano Modeling technology and multi-speaker Acoustic Projection System. This piano has, I believe, a very complex array of speakers around the "soundboard rim" (to call it somehow) and on the base.

The specs on the Kawai-inspired EXXEO reminds me of the Kawai CP1, which also has 9 speakers and 200 watts of amplifier power.

I have played the Kawai CP200 (Concert Performer series also with 9 speakers and 200 watts), and while the sound at the sample level is outdated (it is an old model of probably 15 years ago), the speaker system is impressive. It was next to a Yamaha GC1 (I think) and it had pretty much the same presence sound-wise, although the Yamaha did have more mid-bass (not necessarily the speaker system fault, as it is likely to be the old sample).

The EXXEO is not a Kawai digital piano, but rather a digital piano designed with Kawai's tone generator inside. Same goes for the Whaletone piano.

[DeborahHamilton-qw]

Steinway's "Fibonacci" piano is stunning! So is the Bosendorfer Opus 50. Both are elegant. My question would be, does the veneer affect the sound at all? Bechstein's Louis XV is a work of art. As for the rest, there's no accounting for taste.