The story
Founded by Ignaz Pleyel in 1807.1
History
Around 1815, Pleyel was the first to introduce the short, vertically strung cottage upright piano, or "pianino" to France, adapting the design made popular in Britain by Robert Wornum. Their pianos were such a success that in 1834 the company employed 250 workers and produced 1000 pianos annually.
The company's success led them to invest in experiments, resulting in the double piano in 1890, invented by Hungarian composer Emánuel Moór. Although not the first company to experiment with building two pianos into the same frame, Pleyel's instrument, patented as the "Duo-Clave", was by far the most successful and produced the largest instruments. The company manufactured a very small number of double pianos in the 1890s and continued to make them until the 1920s. CDs can be bought today of performances on some of these pianos.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Pleyel firm produced the first chromatic harp.
In the early 20th century, performances by Wanda Landowska helped revive interest in the harpsichord.
In 1913, Pleyel built the "Jungle Piano" for use by Albert Schweitzer in his hospital in Lambaréné (French Equatorial Africa – now Gabon). It was fitted with pedal attachments (to operate like an organ pedal-keyboard) and built with tropical woods that would acclimate to conditions there.
In the early 1920s, Pierre Hans (1886-1960), an engineer with very thick fingers, commissioned Pleyel to build a piano he designed with an upper keyboard and a lower keyboard tuned a half tone apart, which became known as the Hans piano. Pleyel produced several Hans pianos, but they fell out of use after World War II.
Pleyel also pioneered the player piano with the Pleyela line of pianos. These were often small pianos of an unusual design.
2009 replica
In September 2009, the company produced a replica of the Pleyel piano, produced in 1830, that was used by Fryderyk Chopin. The original, which is now in the collection of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, was used as the source for the plans for this replica. This replica was used in The 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in September 2018.
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Recordings made with originals and replicas of Pleyel et Cie pianos
Yuan Sheng. Frederic Chopin. Ballades Nos 1-4/Impromptus Nos 1-4. Played on the 1845 Pleyel piano. Label: Piano Classics
Ronald Brautigam. Felix Mendelssohn. Piano Concertos. Played on a copy of the 1830 Pleyel piano made by Paul McNulty. Label: Bis
Janusz Olejniczak. Chopin evening around 1831 Pleyel.
Alexei Lubimov. Chopin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven: at Chopin’s home piano. Played on the original 1843 upright Pleyel piano. Label: NIFCCD
Dina Yoffe. Fryderyk Chopin. Piano Concertos No 1 & 2. Version for one piano. Played on the 1848 Pleyel and the 1838 Erard pianos. Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute
Viviana Sofronitsky, Sergei Istomin. Frederyk Chopin. Complete works for cello and piano. Played on a replica of the 1830 Pleyel piano made in 2010 by Paul McNulty. Label: Passacaille
Kevin Kenner. Fryderyk Chopin. 4 Impromptus. Played on the 1848 Pleyel piano. Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute
Tomasz Ritter. Fryderyk Chopin. Sonata in B Minor, Ballade in F minor, Polonaises, Mazurkas. Karol Kurpinski. Polonaise in D minor. Played on the 1842 Pleyel piano, the 1837 Erard piano and a copy of Buchholtz piano from ca 1825-1826 made by Paul McNulty. Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute
Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka. Frederic Chopin. 24 Preludes. Played on the 1842 Pleyel piano. Released under a Creative Commons license.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pleyel et Cie, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4