The Bösendorfer Concert Grand Piano

Model 290 Imperial, "the Rolls-Royce of Pianos"
The commanding flagship - the DNA carrier

Eight full octaves

Of all the Bösendorfer grand pianos, model 290, the Imperial, carries the Bösendorfer DNA, a heritage in its most pronounced form. Historically, the Imperial was the 19th grand piano model made by the Bösendorfer company.

Originally built following a suggestion by composer Ferruccio Busoni, the Imperial has 97 keys, i.e. eight full octaves. This expanded range allows faithful performances of a number of compositions by Bartók, Debussy, Ravel and, not least of all, Busoni.

Combining a very powerful soundboard and a high proportion of mountain spruce from the Alps, this piano’s sound is almost orchestral. The Bösendorfer “resonating box principle,” which views the entire instrument as a cohesive whole, generates unsurpassed power and a poignantly full tone. Model 290 is the only standard grand piano model to have acquired an epithet when it was first built in around 1900: Imperial (lat. imperare, to order, command).

Its commanding presence in some of the world’s great concert halls sets the standard by which other grand pianos are judged.

97 keys
Length: 9'6", Width: 5'9", Net: 1.255 lb