Pianomania

Stefan Knüpfer is a piano technician. He works for Steinway in Vienna. His job is to prepare an instrument for the person who will play it. Every pianist wants a different sound. The documentary follows his working days. He works with Lang Lang. He works with Alfred Brendel. At the centre of the film is someone else. Pierre-Laurent Aimard is preparing a Bach album of the Art of Fugue. He wants four distinct sounds out of one piano, a harpsichord, a fortepiano, an organ and a chamber orchestra. Knüpfer sets about meeting that. The film starts a year before the session and keeps its humour throughout. It won the best documentary feature award in San Francisco. Stefan Knüpfer and Pierre-Laurent Aimard appear in the ninety three minute film, an Austrian and German production Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck finished in 2009.