pianos lost and found

Some thoughts on

The lost pianos of siberia
Sophy Roberts
Transworld / Penguin 2020

bookshop.org

Although I have no ambition to visit Siberia or to look for pianos, I am quite envious of the catchy book title, immediately evoking a quixotic quest. The not very convincing excuse for this quest was that the author met a talented young pianist in Mongolia and wanted to find a historic piano that resided within realistic distance so it could be transported to Mongolia.

Apart from being close to Mongolia, Siberia isn’t exactly the place where you would expect to find pianos, so the author has a lot of explaining to do. How and why did pianos get to Siberia, how did they survive there. Along the way we learn a lot about Russian history, how both the Tsarist Empire and Stalin’s USSR deported many thousands of prisoners to Siberia, and some people even went there voluntarily.

Like the previous book I reviewed, The far edges of the known world, this book tells history from the perspective of the periphery, an approach that delives a refreshingly novel view of the world, even if much of the reality recounted here is as harsh as the Siberian winter. We also get introduced to many more Siberian people of the present than I can remember, so we learn that despite all the horrid history, the vast expanse east of the Ural mountain range is still inhabited to a degree. I seem to remember that even the Denisovans of the Altai cave got a mention, even though I can't find them in the index.

Although not a pianist herself, the author learned enough about the instruments to provide insightful commentary on the various trends and traditions in piano building across the piano mania time in the 19th century when it was almost de rigeur to have such an instrument in your lounge. It was the time when Mr Steinweg went to America and became Steinway, whereas other German makers went east to serve the nascent Russian market.

Personally, if I had to do a quest to find [historic instruments] in [exotic places] I might have chosen something like cellos and Colombia, but as an armchair exploration, pianos in Siberia worked for me too.

PS Speaking of cellos, she didn't mention Lise Cristiani (1827-1853), who took her Stradivarius cello on an epic concert tour through the Russian Empire, covering remote locations that possibly hadn't seen a cello before. That story makes up 1/4 of the more recent book Cello by Kate Kennedy.