Rare Austrian pianos headed to Downtown Bellevue

Music lovers will have a chance to see rare and one-of-a-kind pianos at Classic Pianos on Northeast 8th Street in Downtown Bellevue.

Music lovers will have a chance to see rare and one-of-a-kind pianos at Classic Pianos on Northeast 8th Street in Downtown Bellevue.

The piano store will host pianos from Bösendorfer pianos — an Austrian piano maker creating luxury instruments since 1828 — from Thursday, March 10 through Sunday, March 13.

Among these is a $750,000 limited edition Opus No. 50,000 piano as part of the company’s factory selection tour event.

According to Anne Albanese, a public relations manager overseeing Bösendorfer’s tour in Bellevue, the event represents one of the largest groups of the company’s pianos ever at one location in the United States.

Ben Klinger, sales manager of Classic Pianos, said the event would be one his customers would truly enjoy.

“The Bösendorfer Factory Selection Tour is an incredibly rare opportunity for our customers to play such a large and varied collection of stunning instruments from this famed company,” he said. “Bösendorfer represents the epitome of fine piano making, an instrument of extraordinary beauty allowing the player to achieve the highest level of musical interpretation. We encourage people to come out and see this spectacular display that will inspire the ears and eyes of musicians and music lovers alike.”

One of the pianos in the exhibit is the “Klimt” piano, which has a facsimilie of Viennese painter Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” painted on the interior of the lid.

According to Albanese, “Bösendorfer used a very high resolution image of the painting and, through advanced reprographic techniques, reproduced it on the inside of the lid of the company’s best selling 200 model.”

Bösendorfer is the world’s oldest producer of premium pianos, founded during the lifetime of Beethoven and Schubert, and used by classical pianists the world round.

For more information on the tour, contact Classic Pianos at 10635 NE 8th St., Bellevue.