1955

  • Steinway & Sons makes $4,530,000 in sales.
  • Steinway & Sons’ net profit is $90,788.
  • Steinway & Sons’ Hamburg plant recovers to the production / sales level, equal to that of 1930.
  • Vladimir Horowitz begins to record his new repertoire at home; RCA provides the recording equipment and sound engineers. For these recordings, Horowitz asks his close friend Alexander Greiner if Steinway & Sons could build him a piano that would sound like the voice of his favorite singer, an Italian operatic baritone Mattia Battistini. Greiner responds that such piano may have already been built, and suggests that Horowitz should just visit Steinway Hall and find it. The pianist does just that, and selects a Steinway & Sons Model D grand piano CD 186 (Concert Department 186). This will become Vladimir Horowitz’s favorite piano through the remaining years of his career.