At the beginning, it was a small world: the dark walls of a small shop, a plank as a table, fumes of glue and paint and an ordinary name: Antonín, the son of a joiner, who lived in a small village in the centre of an empire called Hradec Králové, in Bohemia. As an 18 year old boy, he fancied and dreamed about putting the family name Petrof onto the most prestigious piano keyboards around the world. Looking back today, a century and a half later, it sounds like an unbelievable story that brings to mind the progression of a opera: between flops and triumphs, the climb towards power and the humiliation of a regime. It is a story of artisans, ingenious creators and piano artists: the saga of a family, who took over the world. But quite soon, the fate of the Petrof family shares moments of chaos and splendour in its homeland, Bohemia. The generational changes inside the company took place alongside the upheavals of two world wars, the birth of a country and the tracks of military tanks, which came to strengthen a regime of stone, which was to crumble only after forty years of gloominess before opening the way to a long-awaited freedom. The Czech Republic of today and its free market. But let’s go back to the beginning, to Antonin’s journey from his father’s shop to the capital city of Vienna. Seven years of apprenticeship with the most prestigious piano production factories of the Empire: Heitzman, Ehrbar, Schweighofer. The initiation into the art of the keyboard, then his return, filled with determination and a clear objective in mind, that will eventually take shape in his father’s little shop, hidden behind the city’s cathedral. Then in 1864, the first grand concert piano, bearing the Petrof name, is finally assembled. This will prove to be the beginning of a relentless overture towards success: so much so, that in 1880 the high quality pianos produced by the Antonín workshop, encourage him to open a branch at Temesvar, in Hungary. And just a few years later, another intuition by the creator of this family fortune, leads him to produce upright pianos. Being successful on the market, implies adapting to the musical tastes of the time: and he was actually able to hit the mark. Production continued to grow and in 1895, the company opened a new branch in Vienna, thus starting an important export trade of instruments across the border. In fact, 1899 turns out to be a year of honours – and Antonín Petrof is named first supplier of pianos to the imperial court in Vienna. In the same period, Antonín’s children and his wife Marie began working for the family business and it was Vladimír – the youngest – who took over the Petrof business at his parents’ death during World War I. Year upon year, production began to expand, excelling in quality, but never on an assembly line basis. Just after the First World War, electro-pneumatic and radio-acoustic pianos began to be produced and the export market thus became global. Czechoslovak pianos soon spread around the world and appeared on stages in China, Japan, Australia and South America. Actually, when the empire collapsed at the end of the war, a new Country was rising in 1919, and the name Petrof soon became the emblem of music. Thus, in addition to the immortal works of the composer Antonín Dvořák, this strip of land placed in the heart of Europe, soon began to shine with the fame and sound of its keyboards. So astounding was the success of Petrof that, in 1928 – in collaboration with the U.S. Stainway production company – a subsidiary was opened in London’s Wigmore Street. Meanwhile, the family became larger: the company was joined by the third Petrof generation: Dimitri, Eduard and Eugene. But, when everything seemed to be running smoothly, history overturned things: in first place, the severe blow to Czechoslovakia caused by Hitler’s invasion in 1938 and the scourge of the Second World War in Europe. As a consequence, the production and exports of instruments came to a halt. Then again, another disaster ten years later, when the country passed into hands – not of course the delicate hands of a piano player – but rather the tough hands of the communist regime.
Consequently, all industries became nationalized and business activity, private property and personal freedom were revoked. The humiliating crush of state bureaucracy. Jan Petrof, the first representative of the fourth family generation, was only eleven years old at the time and recalls the humiliation caused by the confiscation of the factory and particularly the employees of the company, who were driven by political party officials to spit on his father and uncles, while they walked away from their factory. They were accused of being exploiters of workers and enemies of the people; and this was the fate reserved for those who had worked with great passion and dedication. Jan recounts how, following the state take over, production at the Petrof company began to be judged solely on the basis of number of pieces produced. Quality became a secondary factor: after all, most of the exports were directed to the Soviet Union in exchange for oil and natural gas. Stifled were also the hopes of a possible Prague Spring in 1968, when Prague was invaded by Russians tanks and Czechoslovakia entered into a stagnant and miserable phase, which also affected the Petrof company. Today, those excellences may just be perceived through a few old faded photographs and documents. A long hiatus that lasted over forty years, until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the downfall – one after the other – of the communist regimes of the East, the Velvet Revolution and then the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1990.
And it was actually during that year that the new president announced his plans for the restitution of property confiscated by the State in 1948 – to their respective owners. Thus, just a year later, Jan Petrof was appointed president of the company that had been founded by his great-grandfather.
The rest belongs to contemporary history: in 2001, the company passed into the hands of the fifth family generation, and three years later, Zuzana Ceralová Petrofová was appointed president. Production was renewed and brought back to high quality production standards, spreading its unique sound to all the corners of the world. But, for the company, a new crisis was on the horizon: the economic crisis that has affected Europe in these last few years. Nevertheless, the Petrof company has been able to overcome the terrible years of losses and painful dismissals and has become profitable again.
So, after a number of difficult years, the company is now operating at full capacity and in 2010 opened a representative office in Shanghai, a sort of bridgehead to the prosperous Asian market. A hundred and fifty years have now passed and the ambitious dream of a carpenter’s son still continues to affect people’s hearts and receive praise from all over the world. But the house is still there, in Hradec Králové, inside a renovated building that carries the name Petrof on its facade. However, it is far better to close our eyes and feel we are inside that workshop that smells of glue and sawdust. Petrof remains a pentagram dream, a story of strokes on the keyboard.by Edoardo Malvenuti