Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH is a piano-manufacturing company in Leipzig, Germany.[1] Composers who used Blüthner include Brahms, Debussy, Wagner, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and the Beatles among others.
History
After a long and difficult campaign to gain Leipzig citizenship, Julius Blüthner established his workshop in Leipzig, Saxony in 1853. In the beginning he employed three other craftsmen.
By 1900 Blüthner had become the largest piano maker in Germany, producing some 5,000 instruments annually. Innovations such as the aliquot string (an additional string on high treble notes that improves their tone by vibrating sympathetically), as well as a cylindrical soundboard and angle cut hammers, created a unique voice for the Blüthner instrument.
The owners in 1917 (Adolf Max Blüthner, Dr. Paul Robert and Willy Bruno Heinrich) were awarded an imperial and royal warrant of appointment to the court of Austria-Hungary.[2]