GP-500BP_P-web

CASIO LAUNCHES NEW CELVIANO GRAND HYBRID DIGITAL PIANO

It’s not the real thing, but it’s really, really close.

New York City pianist Simone Dinnerstein played to a rapt audience at Lincoln Center recently, and demonstrated the remarkable sound of Casio’s new CELVIANO Grand Hybrid digital piano. Stephen Schmidt could’ve sworn he was seeing and hearing an acoustic concert grand.

“Between the sound and the appearance, that’s all I could imagine,” he tells M Music & Musicians.

Granted, Schmidt serves as vice president of Casio’s Electronic Musical Instrument Division, so he might be slightly biased—but he’s hardly alone in thinking the CELVIANO Grand Hybrid is an astonishing instrument. In between pieces by Bach and Schubert, Dinnerstein praised the new model for its “singing, sustained touch.” Her selections showcased the CELVIANO’s unique ability to capture the wide range of sounds and emotions that only come with a proper grand piano.

In fact, the CELVIANO Grand Hybrid re-creates the sound of three well-respected acoustic grand piano models produced in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna. For the Berlin grand tone, Casio worked closely with C. Bechstein, a renowned German piano manufacturer that Schmidt says pushed his research-and-development team to new heights of innovation.

“They’re taskmasters,” says Schmidt of his German partners, some of whom were on hand for the Manhattan event. “When we first started developing the sound, we had 24 microphones placed around a piano. And Bechstein said, ‘No, not good enough.’ So we did it again—our engineers went back to work with their people, and we thought, ‘OK, this is it!”

Bechstein’s response, Schmidt recalls: “You’re about 75 percent there.” That sent Casio’s team back to the drawing board, and after months and months of work, Bechstein gave an enthusiastic sign-off.

“Even if the process was difficult, the final product is setting a benchmark for digital pianos, especially in tone and touch,” says C. Bechstein executive Ralf Dewor.

From L-R, Mike Martin, Koyo Nagoya, Karl Schulze, Stephen Schmidt, Ralf Dewor, and Shigenori Itoh at Casio’s Grand Hybrid event. Karl Schulze is the CEO of C. BECHSTEIN and Ralf Dewor is the Head of Sales for C. BECHSTEIN. The other four are Casio executives including Shigenori Itoh, CEO of Casio America, Inc.

From L-R, Mike Martin, Koyo Nagoya, Karl Schulze, Stephen Schmidt, Ralf Dewor, and Shigenori Itoh at Casio’s Grand Hybrid event. Karl Schulze is the CEO of C. BECHSTEIN and Ralf Dewor is the Head of Sales for C. BECHSTEIN. The other four are Casio executives including Shigenori Itoh, CEO of Casio America, Inc.

Indeed, the CELVIANO doesn’t just sound like an acoustic grand piano. Boasting a state-of-the-art Natural Grand Hammer Action keyboard that features full-length wooden keys and a cutting-edge mechanism that incorporates real hammers, the piano feels like one, too.

The CELVIANO Grand Hybrid also features a Hall Simulator—which offers players the experience of performing at some of the world’s most renowned concert venues—and a Concert Play feature that lets players tackle works by Tchaikovsky, Pachelbel, Smetana, and others with the backing of a symphony orchestra.

“It’s everything we hoped it would be,” says Schmidt. “The goal was to try to make a piano that’s as close to authentic as you can in the digital world—and it’s amazing how close that is.” –Kenneth Partridge

comment closed

Copyright © 2015 M Music & Musicians Magazine ·