Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos has entered into partnership with PETROF, Europe’s largest producer of acoustic grand and upright pianos. With a long and distinguished history dating back to 1864 when Antonin Petrof built his first piano, the PETROF brand has become synonymous with European craftsmanship. Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos now stocks and sells new PETROF grand and upright pianos, a brand that has not been available in South Africa in recent times. We are delighted to offer pianos from this family run business with values that so closely align to ours, and we love the quality of their pianos.
Amazingly the small workshop Antonin Petrof turned into a piano factory in the 1860’s still stands to this day, located in Hradec Králové in the heart of the Czech Republic. What is equally amazing is that the company remains in the hands of the Petrof family, the fifth generation to be precise. As President of PETROF, Susan Petrof currently acts as head of the company and along with number awards she regularly appears in FORBES magazine’s list of the most influential women in the Czech Republic. Susan had the following to say about the new partnership – “I am very excited to cooperate with our new dealer Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos as I believe that Petrof Pianos will captivate customers in South Africa, and we are grateful for the chance to expand on the African continent.”
If you’ve followed our recent news you will know this is the second new piano brand we’ve introduced over the past few months after taking on Fazioli earlier this year. Asked how PETROF fits into the Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos range Ian said the following; “We aim to stock a range of pianos from quality producers providing options at various price points. We don’t try and compete in the inexpensive entry level pre-owned market mostly served by private internet sales. Our pre-owned pianos start with younger, better-quality, mid-range instruments. Very broadly in price order we first have our high quality pre-owned pianos and our Kawai digital range, then we move on to the various Kawai acoustic models, followed by PETROF, then Shigeru Kawai and finally Fazioli. Of course there is lots of price overlap when comparing uprights and grand pianos in the brand categories mentioned above. Adding PETROF goes a long way to completing our range. Pricing aside I am a huge admirer of PETROF as the instruments I’ve had the privilege of working on over the years have impressed me immensely.”
PETROF Grand Pianos
PETROF split their grand piano line into various categories, the “Standard Series”, “Higher Series”, “Style Collection” and “Special Collection”. The Standard Series contains the small and mid-sized grands, and the Higher Series contains their larger concert instruments. The Style Collection and Special Collection contain a combination of grand piano sizes but with rare cabinet finishes and unique designs.
PETROF produce grand pianos in six sizes, from a 159cm baby grand named the “Bora”, through to the 284cm full sized concert grand piano named the “Mistral”. PETROF have had some fun naming their grand pianos, in contrast to many other producers who simply refer to their grand pianos by size. In order of smallest to largest, the PETROF grands are named; “Bora”, “Breeze”, “Storm”, “Pasat”, “Monsoon” and “Mistral”. We thought it appropriate that the first new PETROF grand in our Cape Town showroom is the 194cm “Storm”.
PETROF Upright Pianos
PETROF split their upright pianos into the following categories, “Middle Series”, “Higher Series”, “Highest Series”, “Style Collection”, and “Special Collection”. Like their grand piano categorization, the Middle, Higher and Highest series split the instruments by size and the Style and Special collections are various sizes but with interesting finishes and designs. The PETROF uprights come in five sizes (or heights), from 118cm through to 135cm. In addition to different heights, there are also various cabinet design options available.
We received delivery of our first new PETROF pianos in early April, including a couple of their uprights models and the beautiful mid-sized “Storm” grand piano. Please visit our showroom to try out the new pianos.